Do You Remember?
by rocketstar
Summary: Charlotte Noël Gilbert knew she was going to regret meeting Damon Salvatore as what's worse than suspecting that your twin sister's boyfriend's brother may just been the spawn of Satan? Falling in love with him.
1. Chapter 1

Running down the school hallways Charlotte Noël Gilbert or Noël as she generally went by attempted to straighten herself up as she rushed down the hallway to get to her history class which she running late for. As Noël was running to class she was attempting to tie up her rather messy hair into a somewhat more presentable bun whilst straightening out her shirt. Noël looked like she just rolled out of bed which was kind of true as she had got back home later than she had expected, she barely time to change after dropping her bags back at home before coming to school; hence the rushing around to get to class. As she finally made it to her history class Noël pushed the door open too quickly and stumbled in much to the amusement of her class and dismay of her teacher.

"Hey! Mr. Tanner so sorry I am late." Noël said trying to sound as apologetic as she could but it was kind of hard as she was trying to stop herself from laughing.

"Oh look who it is… the other Miss Gilbert, how nice of you to finally join us Noël." Mr. Tanner began and Noël couldn't help but smile as she had missed his condensing attitude towards everyone he encountered this summer. "And how was bumming around Europe for the last four months?"

"Great! You should absolutely try it Mr. Tanner I completely recommend it although I did have a problem when I was leaving Prague to come back home. Flights were being delayed and there was this airport official trying to explain it in Czech but I didn't understand and I was trying to tell him that I don't speak Czech and all I wanted to do was get home so I could make it in time for my history class." Noël stated as she made her way to the back of the class to take the last available seat, high fiving her sister Elena had her best friend Matt on the way.

"Well if you're so eager to be back Noël, then why don't you tell us all how many casualties there were in the battle of Willow–" Mr. Tanner questioned.

"Three hundred and forty six which doesn't include the twenty seven civilians who were apparently killed according to the guy in the front whose name I didn't seem to catch." Noël absentmindedly replied as she rooted around in her bag looking for a pencil and once she had, Noël looked up and gave Mr. Tanner her best and brightest smile.

Mr. Tanner looked straight back at Noël for a brief moment before rolling his eyes, no matter how much he tried to trip her up and embarrass her in his class it never worked as Noël knew her history. "Very good Miss Gilbert."

Somewhat satisfied Mr. Tanner returned to teaching and thirty-five minutes later the bell went signaling that class was over and Noël got up and started packing her things away and once she left the classroom she was immediately ambushed. "I can't believe your back Noël! Why didn't you call and tell us you were coming back early!" Elena asked as she hugged Noël.

"Because I thought it would be funny to not tell you and just show up and see the surprise of your face!" Noël quipped as she smiled at her twin sister as they two of them hugged again, they hadn't seen each other since their parent funeral. Four moths ago their parents died in a car accident after the family car had gone off wickery bridge and they had drowned. Elena had been in the car with them and somehow, they had no idea how but she managed to survive. After what happened Noël just couldn't stay in Mystic Falls as it was just too hard and she needed to escape for a while so she packed her bags and went on a group tour thing that went traveling around Europe. She wasn't supposed to be back for another week.

"I've missed you so much Noël, how are you doing?" Bonnie, a close friend of both Noël and Elena asked.

"I'm good Bonnie." Noël replied with a small smile but truthfully she wanted to sleep for the next ten hours but she had things to do, people to see and questions to dodge, avoid or lie about.

"Um… Noël I'd like to introduce you to Stefan Salvatore, he's new here and Stefan this is my twin sister Charlotte who prefers to go by her middle of Noël for some unknown reason." Elena began and Noël offered a polite wave before turning to Bonnie with a look that was demanding an explanation. Not once in the times they had spoken in the last couple of days was this guy mentioned and as far as Noël knew her sister wanted to be single but her and the new guy looked pretty cozy.

"Your a twin?" Stefan asked Elena in surprised as he looked between her and Noël.

"Fraternal but yes." Elena replied and the look she gave Stefan made Noël gag.

"But the two of you look so alike." Stefan couldn't help but point out and he had a point as Noël and Elena did look very similar despite being fraternal twins but there were very obvious differences to tell them apart such as Noël having blue eyes compared to Elena brown eyes and standing two inches taller than her sister. Then Noël was forty minutes, technically thirty nine minutes older than Elena.

"Yeah… But fraternal twins are no different than any other siblings when it comes to similarity in appearance, Elena and I just happen to look really alike for sisters who shared the same womb for nine months." Noël quipped before moving on because as much as she wanted to spend all day talking to the new guy, she really wanted to find her baby brother. "Elena, is Jer here? I wanna find him before I call Aunt Jenna and let her know that I'm back."

"Noël you haven't called Aunt Jenna?" Elena questioned with a scolding tone. "How could you not?"

"Give me a break Elena, I literally just this second got back home I'll call her at lunch, right now I want to find Jeremy… So where is my dear sweet baby brother? I've missed him and I want a hug." Noël asked.

"Probably by the bins getting stoned or something, I'll come with you." Elena started and Noël shook her head.

"Nada, I'll go find him by myself and I'll find you later and we can catch up later or something." Noël replied before walking off to go find her brother, whilst Noël knew her sister had good intentions she didn't want Elena coming with her to see Jeremy as she knew Elena would give Jeremy a lecture on his drug usage. Now Noël knew that her brother doing drugs was bad thing but she just wanted to see her brother who she hadn't seen in four months and had missed very much. Noël wanted to see Jeremy and get a hug off him without worrying about a lecture. As Noël made her way outside she could make out Jeremy's tall and lanky figure dressed in black and so she ran over to him and jumped on his back, which caused him to stumble slightly. "Miss me?"

"Holy crap! Noël you're back?" Jeremy questioned half in shock, half in amusement.

"Well unless you're in some drug induced haze and hallucinating your favourite sister then yeah I'm back Jeremy." Noël teased and Jeremy sighed. "Look Jer, we're going to have to about this drugs thing eventually."

"Just like we're going to talk about you running away." Jeremy retorted and he had Noël there, she'd give him that.

"Touché but we can save that for later, I just came to say hi and get a hug before I go to my next class." Noël replied with a genuine smile, Jeremy may be having his own problems but she had always adored her baby brother.

Jeremy laughsed "Well I'm glad you came, have you seen Elena yet?"

"Yeah I did this whole amazing entrance into Mr. Tanner's class which you would have loved and we did the hello thing before she gave me grief about not calling Aunt Jenna to say I was coming home early… Anyone would think she'd want me to stay in Europe." Noël said with a small shake of my head.

"Well I for one am glad your back Noël, at least Elena won't just be on my case anymore she'll be on yours too so I hope your ready." Jeremy informed his sister and she couldn't help but sigh, Elena was always good for the righteousness speech.

"Jeremy Gilbert is that all I'm good for? And here I thought we were closer than that?" Noël asked with a teasing tone. "Or do you not love hanging out with your amazing older sister anymore? Who always shares her candy supply with her baby brother."

"Don't worry misery still loves company." Jeremy told Noël referring to a private joke between them where he was misery and she was company because of the whole twin thing.

"Too right! And company loves misery too." Noël proudly stated before sliding off Jeremy's back. "Well I've got to get to my next class but I'll see you later…"

"There's a party at the falls later, if you're interested?" Jeremy offers and Noël couldn't help but grin, if this was Elena she'd make plans for me Noël to stay home, unpack and catch up on her sleep but Jeremy on the other hand wanted to go out and have fun. There was only one clear choice.

"Jeremy Gilbert, you have yourself a deal buddy…" Noël said accepting the offer as she started walking backwards towards the main school building.

"I'm glad your home Noël, I've really missed you these last few months." Jeremy told his sister

"I've really missed you too Jer." Noël replied giving her brother a small smile before turning around and taking a deep breath. It was official, no longer was she parading around Europe hiding away from all her problem and her grief but back home to where her problems all began and still lurked from when she left them four months ago.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey Stranger!"

Turning around Noël saw Matt Donovan, her best friend and now her sister's ex boyfriend, she wasn't here when it happened but according to the email that Noël received from Elena at the time when she was in Belgium, Elena had broken up with Matt not long after their parents funeral because she needed space. Naturally Noël sympathized with her sister but Matt was Noël best friend in the entire world and she wasn't going to give him up just because Elena had broken up with him. "Hey Matt, long time no see eh?"

"You're telling me Noël but I'm glad as hell that you've finally home because I've missed you whilst you've been gone and I kept all your postcards." Matt stated before taking a deep breath and the two of them both knew what was coming next, more specifically what question he was about to ask. "How are you doing?"

"Fine." Noël answered, too quickly for her liking as it sounded way like she was saying it for the sake of saying it, which she was but Noël didn't want Matt to know that.

"Noël this is me your talking to, you can tell me anything and you know I won't judge or give you the condescending speech about how everything's going to be okay in time because I know you hate it."

"I really don't know Matty I have these mixed feeling about everything, I knew I couldn't stay in Europe forever and that I eventually had to come home but it felt good to be away from here Matt. Whilst I was away I got to be Charlotte, a normal teenager out traveling the world and having fun…" Noël wearily began as she had gone four months without talking about any of this in any proper detail. "It was easier for me to cope being away, I knew my parents were dead, the grief just wasn't overwhelming and crippling me like it was when I was here but I'm not in Europe anymore I'm back in Mystic Falls. I can't hide from any of this anymore I have to go home and face it…"

"You haven't been home yet?"

"Briefly, just to drop off my bags and I didn't even go inside I just threw into the hallway before I decided to come to school. I'm scared to go into my own house because I know everything's changed, Aunt Jenna's moved into my parents room and their things have packed up… But that's the least of my problems at the moment. "Noël reluctantly said.

"Why has something else happened recently?" Matt questioned.

"Not recently but Jeremy's got this drug problem according to Elena and she's really freaking out about it and so I'm going to have to do something about it because apparently my brother isn't listening to anything Elena says. And you know what's weird? I get the feeling that she blames me for it… Jeremy doing drugs, I mean. I think Elena blames me Matt."

Matt looked at Noël as if she had lost her mind. "Noël where on earth did you get something like that?'

"Our parents died and there was a traumatic loss and then I take off, I think Elena thinks that if I hadn't taken off then Jeremy wouldn't be doing drugs or I would have been here to stop him earlier."

"This isn't your fault Noël, you can't blame yourself for this because you're not the one whose giving Jeremy the drugs to get high. He's making the choice to do it and the only one responsible is him." Matt told Noël and she couldn't help but smile, she could always talk to Matt about her family problems because he always understood what it was like because his family wasn't the most stable. His dad wasn't involved in the picture and his mom would disappear for weeks on end and his older Vicki was a regular drug user.

"I know that Matt but I know Elena is going to ask me to do something about it but I can't exactly lecture Jeremy on using drugs to deal with what happened seeing as I ran away… talk about the pot calling the kettle black." Noël stated and she couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of this all. "But enough about me, what about you?"

"Vicki's doing drugs, my mom's still off with Pete, we're barely getting by and I'm pretty sure my ex-girlfriend doesn't want to get back together because she had a thing for the new guy." Matt said as he kicked a piece of dirt on the ground.

"New guy?" Noël questioned

"Noël, it's that guy Stefan Salvatore… you used his answer in history today when you were doing your whole little funny act when you arrived this morning and I saw you talking with him, Elena and Bonnie."

Noël had to think about it before she finally realized that Matt was talking about the handsome brooding guy. "Oh him? I spent two minutes with him before I bailed to check in on Jeremy but don't worry Matt, this new guy will never replace you in my heart and there's no way he's as awesome as you. He probably spends all his time lurking in a corner reading history books. But don't worry Matthew I'll always love you the most."

"That's comforting to know Charlotte."

"You're supposed to say you'll always love me too Donovan." Noël said before letting out an enormous yawn.

"Tired?" Matt guesses.

"You're kidding me, right? I spent over nine hours on a plane, sitting next to some guy who was the loudest breather in the world and then I made the mistake of coming into school because I didn't want to be in my house by myself. Saying I'm tired is a bit of an understatement…"Noël stated.

Matt placed his arm around Noël's shoulder and she couldn't help but lean her head against him. "Well how about you come over to my place and sleep for a while because I don't think me going to your house is such a good idea at the moment? Last thing I want to do is make Elena feel uncomfortable in her own house. "

"Yes please, I may need to take a shower too because if you haven't noticed I kind of smell like a hobo." Noël noted as she remembered that she haven't showered since she had left Prague and she highly doubted that she smelt like a bed full of roses. More like day old trash if she had to venture a guess.

"Oh? I noticed I just didn't say anything because I'm such a good friend but now that you've mentioned it you could do with a shower… or several.

Noël feebly hit Matt in the gut. "Okay so call Aunt Jenna, sleep, shower–

"–Your not sleeping in my bed until you've showered Noël, I'm sorry but that's just the way it is. I'm not having my bed smell of day old tramp even if you are one of my best friends." Matt joked interrupting Noël mid way through her sentence.

"Fine." Noël said with a roll of her eyes, he did have a point because there is no way she'd let him sleep in her bed smelling the way she currently did. "Call Aunt Jenna, shower, sleep and then we go to the party tonight."

"Your going to the party tonight? Noël you just got in from Europe which is in a totally different time zone…" Matt couldn't help but point out.

"Check this, I came home today which is a reason in itself to throw a party and two the back to school party is coincidently tonight which we always go to and lastly we're both depressed and could do with having some fun and some drinks so we are going to have some good old fashioned fun Matthew." Noël stated with a shake of her head and a small laugh. "Besides what did you think I was going to do? Stay home and knit?"

Matt laughs at the idea as he knows there's nothing he could do to convince Noël to stay home. "One can dream, can't they Noël?"


	3. Chapter 3

So maybe going to the party wasn't Noël's best idea. Well it was a good idea at the time, especially after she had a shower and caught up on some sleep at Matt's house. Noël dragged him along with her because she wanted to catch up with all her friends and have a good time catching up with them after being away for so long. And that's what she was doing, Noël had made several rounds at the party talking to friends she hadn't seen in months and sharing stories about my time in Europe until Matt's sister Vicki had been attacked by something in the woods. Then things kind of got sucky when the police and animal control showed up… that was a real downer on Noël's homecoming. Not that they shouldn't have come because Vicki and jeer were friends and of course she wanted to find out what had attacked her, but you know she had a bit to drink and the cops were involved… So now Noël along with her brother and sister were waiting for their Aunt Jenna to come and pick us up.

"Jer bear! How about a beer!" Noël quipped as she took a swing of my beer.

Jeremy glanced at Noël before looking at Elena and proceeded to skulk past her in a seemingly bad mood and Elena came over and snatched Noël's beer off her and threw it away. "You're supposed to be discouraging him Charlotte not encouraging him!"

"It's one beer chill out!" Noël retorted, geez Elena was some little miss cranky pants when the hell did she get so uptight? "Ever since I've gotten home you've had some stick up your ass Elena, lighten up man… you're acting like some middle aged women who has no sense of fun and just loves making everyone as miserable as she is."

"Noël, what the hell is wrong with you? Your best friend's sister had just been attacked and you don't even seem fazed or worried? All your concerned with is drinking beer and having a good time." Elena angrily stated.

"It's not like she's dead! You and Jeremy found her in time and now Vicki is on her way to the hospital with Matt! They say no news is good news so forgive me for being optimistic here and not drowning in pity and worry, if I'd had known this is what it was going to be like I wouldn't have come home…" Noël retorted with a roll of her eyes, just because she wasn't becoming a weeping willow, it didn't mean she didn't care after all she wasn't the one who broke Matt's heart that was all on Elena.

"Noël…"

Ignoring her sister, Noël looked over at spotted their Aunt Jenna climbing out of her car and she quickly abounded Elena to go greet Jenna who Noël hadn't seen since Jenna had dropped her off at the airport four months ago. Feeling somewhat relieved to see someone who wouldn't give her a hard time and completely got her Noël ran over to her aunt and hugged her. "Aunt Jenna!"

"You've been drinking, haven't you?" Jenna correctly assumes.

"J-just a smidgen…" Noël casually replied and her aunt desperately tried not to laugh in order to remain a responsible adult figure but it's clearly no use, Jenna and Noël were took alike at times for their own good so if Noël found this funny, then Jenna probably found it funny too. "But you know that I'm always happy to see my favourite Aunt Jenna whose like the mac to my mac and cheese."

"Yeah I bet you are, I think it's time we get you home and into bed Charlotte so you can sleep this off." Jenna instructed as she shepherd Noël into her car before going to look for Elena and Jeremy. Once all said siblings were in the car Jenna drove them home, what they talked about Noël couldn't say as she had zoned out the entire journey home and only returned back to planet reality when they arrived back home. And Noël felt suddenly sober as she walked over the threshold and it had finally sunk in that she was back home in Mystic Falls, back in the place where she had last saw her parents alive before they went out and never home again. Part of the reason why Noël had left town was that because she couldn't stand to be in the house where she had been laughing and having fun with her parents before they had died. Standing in the hallway Noël saw that her previously abounded rucksack was still in the same place that she had left it and taking a deep breath Noël picked it up and headed up the stairs.

Despite the fact that she had caught up with some sleep at Matt's Noël was still incredibly tired and it all seems to be catching up on her. She felt like she could sleep for days. But first she had to finish getting up the stairs and when she reached the top of the stairs and walked on to the landing Noël was met with a disapproving look by Elena.

"Go ahead and say whatever it is you feel like you need to lecture me about now because I'm not going to remember this conversation in the morning, so get on with it and say what you've been desperately wanting to say to me since I came home." Noël said waving her hand in a frivolous manner, if letting Elena purge got her sister to leave her alone and stop with the comments and looks for at least an hour then Noël would take whatever was coming her way,

"You know not everything's some big party Noël, mom and dad are dead and you can't keep pretending that by having a good time that nothing happened because it doesn't change what happened." Elena told Noël who just sighed in response.

"For god sake Elena so what if I am? Jeremy's doing drugs and from what I've been told you've been sitting in the cemetery for the last four months! What if I want to enjoy myself pretend like everything's fine when it is the furthest thing from that? It's been working for me for the last four months and I don't plan on changing anything any time soon! So don't lecture me on dealing with grief because you're a fine one to talk." Noël retorted as she skulked off in the direction of her bedroom.

"Noël…" Elena began but Noël just ignored her as she didn't want to talk to her sister anymore as Elena had effectively ruined her entire day and Noël had quickly grown tired of Elena and she just needed to get some sleep now. Opening her bedroom door Noël was taken back as her bedroom did not look the way she had left it when she left town four months ago. It didn't even look like her room and Noël knew instantly knew Elena was to blame as there was no way Jeremy or Jenna would do something like this.

"What the hell did you do to my room Elena? And where the hell are all my belongings?' Noël demanded turning to her sister as her room looked the total opposite of what it looked like four months ago. The room wasn't a cream colour and there was no framed picture of a horse hanging over her bed along with all the other crap that wasn't hers but she recognized as Elena's stuff.

"I switched rooms a couple of months ago, not long after you left for Europe… I thought it was best to be close to Jeremy so I could keep an eye on him." Elena informed Noël and if she wasn't so tired and slightly intoxicated Noël would have hit her sister, very hard.

"Again with me taking off Elena! For god sake sing another song already! So what if I bailed, you may not have liked it but it was my choice to leave town so stop going on about it!" Noël loudly stated, pushing past Elena as she walked down the hall and headed towards Elena's old room which now happened to be her room. And as Noël walked in she saw that everything was in boxes and not even the bed was made much to her dismay and annoyance. "And thank you for switching bedrooms! You could have asked before moving everything and the least you could have done is unpacked everything! Look at this Elena! It is going to take me days to unpack everything and get this room to remotely resemble what my room used to look like! I even have to make up my bed which I am too tired to even do right now!"

"You can crash with me tonight, we can unpack your room tomorrow…" Elena said from the doorway trying to do some damage control which wasn't working, Noël was far too intoxicated and angry not to mention tired to care what Elena had to say. At the moment Noël disliked her sister very much.

"I don't think so I'm crashing with Jenna, unless you have a problem with that…" Noël said pushing past Elena and head towards her parents' old room which Jenna now occupied. Noël had the urge to just walk out the front door and disappear again but she was too tired and she didn't think she had the strength to run away for so long again.


	4. Chapter 4

After Noël had caught up on some well needed and deserved sleep, she had spent the better part of two days repainting her bedroom and unpacking all of her belongings. Although Elena's old bedroom wouldn't even remotely begin to resemble what her old bedroom looked at Noël was trying her hardest to get her new room to resemble what her old one had looked like. Jenna had suggested that maybe a fresh start was a good thing even if it was a room and maybe redecorating would be good for her but Noël disagreed. So many things had changed and she had lost control of her life and her bedroom was the one thing she wanted control over, she didn't care about moving on or begin stuck in the past. All Noël wanted was to regain some control in her life and have her bedroom look the way it was supposed to. It was still a long way to come and Noël had barely even unpacked any boxes, apart from painting her room and putting up shelves and putting furniture back in places all Noël had unpacked was her clothes and all her bed stuff. All her photos, her books and all her other belongings were still in their box. The only upside to this entire thing was that she now had a slightly bigger room than previously. As Noël got to work moving the numerous boxes in her room so she no longer tripped over them there was a knock on her door and at first she ignored it but the knocking got more persistent to the point where she no longer could ignore. So reluctantly Noël stopped what she was doing, went over to her door and flung it open,

"For the last time Elena, I don't want your help so just leave me alone!" Noël stated in an irritated manner only to find that it wasn't her sister at the door but rather Bonnie.

"I'm not Elena."

"I see that, hey Bonnie…" Noël began .

"I bring food!" Bonnie said as she held out a plate of food out towards Noël. "It's coming along nicely in here."

"It's getting there." Noël replied taking the plate of food as she motioned for Bonnie to come into her room, it wasn't the neatest place at the moment but this whole unpacking and reorganizing everything was taking it's sweet time. Noël never knew unpacking could be so stressful as she had lived in this house her entire life and the only times she had ever unpacked was coming from a sleepover or a trip from their family lake house. Even then her mom always did it for her.

"I told Elena that it was a bad idea about moving room without telling you and that you'd freak out when you came home…"

"Of course I was going to freak out, I came home after four months to find all my belongings in boxes and that Elena's occupying my room. In all our phone calls, letters and skype session she didn't say a single word about it to me. I'm not bothered about the fact that she switched rooms it's the fact that she didn't ask me or even mention the fact that she had done it. Elena just waited until I got home…"Noël said in a irritated tone of voice as she put the plate of food down on her desk.

"I know and I said that to her but Elena was adamant about moving rooms and after a while I dropped the subject. I didn't want to push her considering how hard everything's been for her…" Bonnie said in an attempt to explain Elena's actions.

"Look I get that it's been a hard few months for Elena but it's also been a hard few months for Jeremy, Jenna and I. Elena may have been the one in the accident but we were all affected by what happened and that doesn't give her the right to do all of this. She doesn't get to boss Jeremy and I around like she's mom because she's not. Mom's dead and Jenna is the one in charge not her…" Noël stated.

"Noël…"

"C'mon Bonnie, you've seen her especially with me since I've gotten back, she can't help but tell me what to do, nag me, show her displeasure over the choices I made. I admit that I ran away because I couldn't deal with any of this but I came back. I'm home now. But that doesn't stop Elena for playing the blame game, but here's the thing I don't feel guilty about any of it. I did what I had to do and I'd do it again…" Noël said.

"I get why you're mad Noël but she needed you when you were gone and then there the problems with Jeremy." Bonnie replied.

"I understand that my brother is on drugs and okay that is a problem and we will deal with it as a family and I get that I abandoned my family at an important time but I've already had enough with her righteous attitude and I've only been home for three days." Noël said as she sat down on her bed and let out a sigh. "So what's going on? I can hear you and the sister making some noise downstairs?"

Bonnie sighed as she sat down next to Noël. "Elena wants me to have dinner with her and Stefan so we can get to know each, after the whole thing at the party I just have a bad feeling about him and I've told Elena this, but she doesn't want to hear it. So this is Elena's feeble attempt to win me over and show me how great he is."

"To be honest I don't really see what's so great about this new guy, I'm on Team Matt so this Stefan guy is probably just some rebound. Once the sparkle and shine wears off she'll kick his to the curb…" Noël said with a weary laugh.

"Noël I have a really bed feeling about Stefan and then I accidentally touched him and I felt cold inside. Stefan felt like everything that I imagine death to be; cold, dark and alone." Bonnie slowly said and Noël couldn't help but frown as that was a bit worrying. "Something inside is telling me that Stefan is bad news."

"Is this about the witch thing?" Noël asked and Bonnie nodded, whilst she was away the two of skyped every week so they could keep each other updated with what they had been getting up to. Recently weird things had been happening to Bonnie and according to her nice but rather eccentric grandmother Shelia this was because Bonnie was a witch. As in a proper witch like the ones circa the witch trails and funnily enough Shelia says that the Bennett's came to Mystic Falls through way of Salem. Noël thought it was pretty interesting whereas Bonnie didn't.

"Maybe… I don't know, whether it is because of the witch thing or I'm that worried about Elena and Stefan that my mind is playing tricks on me."

Noël placed a reassuring hand on Bonnie's shoulder "Well if it makes you feel better I believe you about this Stefan thing because I already don't like him."

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at Noël. "You don't even know Stefan, you've had like one conversation with him…"

"He's my sister's boyfriend or the guy that's she crushing on, that's reason enough not to like him plus he's moving in on my domain and I don't like that." Noël retorted, deciding it was best not to bring up the Matt thing.

"Your domain?" Bonnie asked skeptically.

"History." Noël began and immediately Bonnie laughed. "We all know that showing up Mr. Tanner and being the supreme genius is my thing and I'm not going to let some pretty boy from out of town move in and conquer my castle. Plus I really don't get the whole brooding thing, seriously? What is the deal with it? Doom and gloom much?"

The bell going off interrupted Bonnie from replying to Noël's statement although it did cause her to frown. "I guess that's him, showtime..."

"Have fun!"


	5. Chapter 5

Rather reluctantly Noël left her bedroom as she was thirsty after eating the plate of food that Bonnie had brought up for her, the one that was clearly take out as Bonnie and Elena didn't and couldn't cook to save their lives. And Noël really didn't want to drink from my bathroom tap so as she made her way downstairs Noël saw Bonnie. Elena and Stefan in the sitting room with Caroline and some guy who had seen earlier in the day when he dropped Caroline off at school. All Noël knew was that he was apparently Caroline's latest boyfriend and Stefan brother but even then she didn't particularly care. The Salvatore family was not of any particular interest to Noël, like she had stated before she was Team Matt.

"Well look whose finally decided to come out of her room!" Caroline said as she sat on the arm of an armchair next to the guy whose name Noël was yet to catch. Caroline Forbes was a close to a female best friend that Noël had, don't get her wrong she loved Bonnie but with Caroline it wasn't different. She was flawed like Noël was and the two of bonded over that. Not to mention her fun loving nature was contagious and she was always the first person Noël could go to if she wanted to have some good old fun.

"Caroline, as always it's good to see you." Noël said walking into the sitting room and plucking Elena's mug out of her hands and taking a sip of it before handing it back. Just because Noël was mad at her didn't mean she couldn't drink out of her sister's cup.

"You must be the other Gilbert sister that I've been hearing so much about."

"And you are?" Noël demanded turning her attention to the stranger sitting in her house who she didn't know but had the nerve to call her the Other Gilbert. Noël waited to find out who was sitting in her favourite chair, the guy was pretty good looking, scratch that he was really good with his pale blue eyes, dark hair and smoldering good looks it was pretty obvious that he had the whole bad boy thing going on. But as good looking as he was, the guy was still sitting in Noël's chair.

"Charlotte Gilbert this is my brother Damon Salvatore." Stefan said making the introductions and Noël just scrunched up her nose and being referred to as Charlotte.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Charlotte or do you prefer Noël or the Other Gilbert." Damon asked with a cocky smirk on his face and already Noël didn't like it.

"Don't call me that." Noël snapped, god she hated that Other Gilbert name and this Damon guy who she had just met was making jokes about it as if it was funny. Noël could already tell that she wasn't going to get along with Damon and she had a sneaking suspicion that the guy had 666 etched at the back of his skull judging by how much he was enjoying this.

"Noël!" Elena hissed and Noël knew she was in trouble.

"What now Elena?"

"That was kind of rude, so apologize!" Elena demanded and reluctantly Noël turned her head in the direction of Damon.

"Please forgive my rudeness but my name is Charlotte Noël Gilbert. I was named Charlotte because my mother was a huge fan of Charlotte Brontë's work, Noël because Christmas was her favourite holiday and she couldn't exactly name me Charlotte Christmas. I prefer to go by Noël and have been for the last ten years and the only times I get called Charlotte is when I'm being admonished for my behaviour but I will answer to both. Just not the Other Gilbert, only one person gets away with calling me that and that person isn't you." Noël said with a big smile plastered on her face before turning back to Elena. "Was that better?"

"No."

"Too bad, all that unpacking and repainting I've been forced to do has made me so cranky that my manners have vanished into oblivion." Noël finished with a sneer as she made her way over to Bonnie whose sitting opposite Caroline and Damon.

Damon looked at Noël or rather what she wearing and Noël notice the grin on his face when he spots her penguin pajama bottoms. "Nice pants."

If Noël was like Caroline she'd probably run upstairs and put on some more attractive clothes but Noël wasn't her and why was she going to be embarrassed about walking around in her pajamas inside her own home. "Thanks… so what were you guys talking about before the subject of my name and pajama pants choices came up for discussion?"

"Just about cheerleading and practice today." Caroline said before turning to Stefan. "You should have seen Noël today, it's hard to believe how quickly she picked up the routine's despite the fact she's been partying in Europe for the last few months!"

"Genius, can't help but be exceptionally talented." Noël quipped.

"You're a cheerleader?" Damon questioned in surprise.

"Do you have a problem with the fact that I'm a cheerleader?" Noël demand as she wasn't sure she liked how Damon asked his previous question. Just because she liked history, studying and spending my time sleeping or holed up in her room didn't mean she wasn't cheerleader material. Noël liked having fun on occasion, even more so lately that usual...

"No it's just you and Elena don't really seem like the cheerleading type." Damon noted and Noël rolled her eyes whilst Elena took back her mug and took a sip of her coffee.

"It's just because their parents died, their totally just going through a phase, Elena used to be way more fun and Noël not as much." Caroline stated until she picks up the death glare that Bonnie was sending her way and realized what she had just said. "And I say that with complete sensitivity."

"Forget about it Caroline, it's fine." Noël said waving it off, at times Caroline may say the most stupid and inappropriate things but she never meant for it to sound that bad and she had the biggest heart/

"I'm sorry Elena and Noël, I know what it's like to lose both your parents. In fact Stefan and I have watched almost every person we've cared about die–"

"We don't need to get in to that Damon." Stefan stated interrupting his brother mid stream.

"Your right Stefan, last thing I wanted to do was bring up her." Damon added and it's clear that there is more that meets the eyes when it comes to the Salvatore brothers. Which made Noël very interested and it wasn't to do with how good looking Damon was, if Elena wanted to date Stefan it was Noël's duty as her older sister to find out about the two of them. To protect her sister from any harm, of course.

The room falls silent and they all looked at each other, with no one quite knowing what to say to this and Noël being a person who doesn't do well in awkward situations decided to do or say anything to break this silence. "Now this is awkward…"


	6. Chapter 6

The awkward thing was so not Noël's scene so she bolted and offered to load the dishwasher because she really couldn't stay in that room for a moment longer. Not to mention the Salvatore brother's issues kind of mirrored the problems she was currently having with Elena at the moment, which she kind of didn't want to focus on at the moment.. "Noël you don't have to do this, you didn't even eat anything so let me do it…" Elena began taking a plate out of Noël's hands and going to the fridge and handing her sister a candy bar.

"It's fine Elena, I've already started so you might as well just let me continue." Noël replied going to take the plate from her but Elena refused to budge so instead of arguing Noël jumped up and sat on the counter and let Elena continue. "Go ahead if you must then…"

"Noël about everything that's happened since you've come home..." Elena began.

"So what's up with the Salvatore boys and whose this mysterious girl who Damon mentioned?" Noël asked attempting to avoid Elena's question, as she really wasn't in the mood to be talking to her about how things had become strained with Elena ever since she had come home. For Noël she had said everything the she had to say about why she had left town and there was nothing else she had to say on the subject. Noël just wanted to get on with her life and try and settle back into some kind of routine.

"Stefan's ex girlfriend Katherine and she died, I don't really no much about it but from what I can tell it's really complicated." Elena informed me Noël who took a mental note of that tidbit of information, so far there with Stefan there was a dead ex, complicated issues with his brother, likes to brood and was invading her history territory. The more Noël learnt the further unsure she was becoming of the new boyfriend and it seemed like Bonnie's suspicions about Stefan were within good reason.

"Be careful." Noël warned as she opened up the chocolate bar and took a bite from it, for some reason she was hungry and again and really wanted a pizza along with apple crumble and ice cream. Being angry and pissed off made her hungry as hell and Noël decided to order a pizza because her going to bed hungry and cranky never ended well for her or anyone else.

"Is this about Stefan?" Elena guessed and Noël didn't say anything, which just confirmed it all which caused Elena to sigh in annoyance.

"Look Elena before you give me the whole Stefan is great speech and how there's nothing for me to worry about if just get to know him. But it is my job. To worry about you and Jeremy, that is my job as the eldest, ,mom and dad are gone and it's only the three of us and Jenna now. I've been gone for months and that's given me fresh eyes, I see things differently and I know I can't tell you what do but you need to think about whether or now you want to be involved with someone whose got a complex history when your trying to get over a loss like we've suffered." Noël explained.

"I know what I'm doing Charlotte." Elena replied, no doubt annoyed at Noël's interference given the fact that Elena was calling her sister by her first name. Pot calling the kettle black. Noël thought to herself.

"This isn't going to end well but it's your funeral." Noël said with a shrug of her shoulders, Elena was allowed to dish out advice and warnings but couldn't seem to take it so she only had herself to blame when this eventually blew up in her face.

"Problem?"

Elena and Noël don't even look away from each when they simultaneously reply at the same time. "No."

"I figured that I should help with the clean up." Damon stated as he started handing Elena plates. "So the two of you are twins, huh? Whose the eldest?"

"I am, by thirty-nine minutes." Noël replied as she continued to eat her chocolate bar.

"I heard that you just came back from traveling across Europe Noël, where did you go? Any specific place?" Damon asked as he continues to pass Elena plates and cups.

"Vienna, Prague, Copenhagen, Oświęcim, Athens, Berlin and Paris." Noël stated not really sure where this was leading but going along with it because she was certain that if she was impolite again Elena would probably kick her for not playing nice with her boyfriend's big brother. "Nowhere in particular, just all over Europe looking for somewhere that wasn't this god forsaken town."

"You don't like Mystic Falls?"

"I never said that."

"Insinuated it and yet you still came back." Damon noted in amusement although Noël didn't exactly see what was so amusing about me being back home. "That's interesting."

"This is home." Elena answered for Noël and she just shrug her shoulders along in response.

"I have responsibilities here and a family that need me and who I need to take care of, so never coming back and staying in Europe for the rest of my life wasn't exactly an option now was it?" Noël questioned in mild irritation, there was something about this Damon guy that just seemed to be getting on her nerves and it was only increasing by the second.

"I guess so." Damon began as he hands Elena a cup. "Umm… one more."

"Oh thank you." Elena said as Damon handed her the cup but Elena doesn't quite reach it and it would have fallen and shattered on the floor is Damon hadn't of caught it. "Nice save."

"I like you. You know how to laugh. And you make Stefan smile, which is something I haven't seen in a very long." Damon told Elena in an attempt to play nice and Noël just rolled her eyes.

"So earlier, did you mean Katherine?" Noël asked steering the conversation onto something more relevant and something that would give her more details about these two brothers who had just seemingly walked into not only her sister's life but also her house.

"Mm-hmm" Damon said, murmuring quietly.

"How did she die?" Noël questioned and Elena just glared at her but Noël knew it's not like she didn't want to know either, unlike Elena she wasn't going to go beat around the bush. In Noël's opinion Elena had every right to know what she was getting into and Noël felt that it was her job as Elena's barely older sister to make sure she was fully informed because she had already consoled two broken hearts this year and she wasn't in the mood to do it again.

"Charlotte." Elena hissed but Noël just ignored her and looked at Damon waiting for an answer.

"It's fine Elena, your sister is sassy and not afraid to say what's on her mind; I like it and to answer Noël's question Katherine died in a fire. Tragic fire."

"Recently?" Elena questioned and it obvious that her curiosity had finally gotten the best of her, thankfully for Noël. If Elena was going to ignore her advice and continue to date Stefan then she needed to know all the deep dark secrets before they came and bit her in the ass.

Damon seemed pensive for a moment. "It seems like yesterday."

Elena looked at Noël for a moment and she just motioned for her to keep going, she needed answers and Noël was just going along for the ride. "What was she like?"

"She was beautiful. A lot like the two of you in that department. She was also very complicated and selfish and at times not very kind, but very sexy and seductive." Damon said as his brows furrow together.

"So which one of you dated her first?" Noël questioned as it was obvious that the eldest Salvatore had feelings for this Katherine and they had been involved somehow despite the fact that everyone including Noël had been led to believe that she was Stefan's girlfriend. Noël was honestly getting very caught up with this as it was compelling stuff like cheesy soap opera. Two brothers fall for the same girl and fight over her, girl dies in terrible fire and now the brothers hated each other.

"Nicely deduced. Ask Stefan. I'm sure his answer differs from mine." Damon began, shifting the entire conversation in a different direction and turning to Noël. "I'd quit cheerleading if I were you."

Noël rolled her eyes, this guy was possible the biggest jerk she had ever met and now he was trying to tell her how to live her own life. This was just making Noël dislike him even more than she already did and she had known the guy for about twenty minutes "And why's that?"

"Oh, I saw you at practice. You looked miserable."

Noël let out a very unlady like scoff. "Really? I would have never guessed considering the fact that you were too busy sucking face with Caroline, which by the way thanks for returning her. And by the way I wasn't miserable, I was just very pissed off at my sister, still am actually..."

"You're mean." Damon stated with a small chuckle.

"And?"

Damon laughed "So why are you a cheerleader? You and Elena don't really seem like the type if you don't mind me saying, as a matter of fact you should both quit.""

"I'm not, in fact I never was the cheerleader type but Elena wanted to do it and I just went a long with it for the twin thing but now things are different this year. Everything that used to matter doesn't anymore." Noël said with a small shrug.

"So don't let it. Quit, move on. Problem solved. Ta-da." Damon suggested and Noël couldn't help but roll her eyes, clearly this guy was some kind of motivational speaker or a guidance councilor in a previous life.

"Some things could matter again." Elena pointed out and Noël nodded in agreement, Elena was right there and besides she need things to go on my college applications and being a cheerleader wasn't that bad all of the time.

"Maybe. But... seems a little unrealistic to me, you should do something that you care about something that excites you." Damon suggested and Noël figured that was more for Elena's sake then hers.

"Like what?" Noël asked.

"I don't know." Damon stated with a cocky smirk plastered all over his face. "I can't tell you everything."

"I'm sorry… About Katherine, you lost her too." Elena said much to the surprise of Damon and Noël but she quickly got over it as she was done talking with the two of them, she got the information that she needed and now she was moving on. Noël was still hungry and she didn't want to cook anything so she was going to order her pizza. Wasn't the healthiest diet for a cheerleader but Noël didn't care, she wanted pizza and that was what she was going to get,

"Hey. Need some help?" Bonnie asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"I don't know, they might seeing as I haven't' been doing anything." Noël said as she jumped down from the kitchen counter and wondered around the kitchen until she found the house phone. "I'm going to order a pizza."

"Noël how are you still hungry? I made you something to eat over an hour ago and I know Bonnie bought it upstairs for you not to mention your still eating that candy bar I just gave you." Elena pointed out with a shake of her head.

"Elena we all know you didn't cook that food and a candy bar won't sustain me so I'm ordering a pizza, let me know when it gets here." Noël pointed out before walking out of the kitchen and heading back up stairs to her room away from the crazy people and back to some kind of normalcy.


	7. Chapter 7

First pep rally of the year. Noël should have been more excited about it but for some reason she wasn't, Noël just felt a lack of anything recently except hunger. Recently she was more hungry than usual but that wasn't hurting anyone except for the contents of the fridge maybe. Noël was starting to realize that it was her just settling back in to her mundane life here in Mystic Falls which is kind of what she had wanted. For things to settle back down, finish school and escape from Mystic Falls once and for all.

"Well, well… if it isn't Little Miss Gilbert all dressed up in her cheerleading outfit, I see you ignored my advice to quit this cheerleading gig Noël." Damon started as her walked up to Noël with an arrogant smirk and Noël just rolled her eyes. There was something about the way Damon was looking at her that seemed really lecherous which made Noël wonder why he was here in the first place. Damon was pretty old to be attending a pep rally even if he was Caroline's new boyfriend.

"Yeah. I tend to ignore the advice given to me by strange men who I've just met, even the ones dating one of my best friends and just so happens to be the older brother of my sister's new boyfriend." Noël quipped with a shrug of her shoulders. "Sorry but your advice may have worked with Elena but not with me, I don't really like being told what I can or I can't do anymore."

"You're very interesting Gilbert, far different from the person I was expecting especially given what Caroline had said about you being not so much fun." Damon said and Noël couldn't help but laugh, she had to love Caroline even when she said the most insensitive and harsh things unintentionally.

"Caroline was right about what she said about me last night, a few months ago I was not like how I am now. I was boring, had no sense of fun not to mention quite I am literally the biggest nerd you would have ever come across. My mom would always encourage me to be more outgoing and while I loved her, I hated her for doing that to me. I liked staying indoors and reading some obscure textbook, I admit that if it wasn't for my friends I wouldn't have a social life."

"What changed? How'd boring and quiet little Noël become the confidant, snarky and party loving Noël?" Damon questioned.

"My parents died. They were in an accident one night when Elena decided to ditch family night in favor of going to a party. So Elena went and I stayed home and a couple of hours later after she had a bit to drink Elena called home, something had gone on with her boyfriend and she was upset and my parents went to go pick her up. My parents never came home, my dad's car went off wickery bridge, Elena somehow managed to get out of the car but my parents didn't, they drowned." Noël grimly explained.

"You blame her." Damon stated.

"I never said that." Noël replied.

"You didn't have to Gilbert, I could tell. The two of us are what you would call two peas in a pod or kindred spirits, if you will..." Damon told Noël who scoffed at the comparison as her and Damon had nothing in common other than the fact that they lived in Mystic Falls.

"The two of us, kindred spirits? I think not."

"Really Gilbert? We both have dead parents, younger siblings who we don't have the best of relationships with. We both like to drink and have fun not to mention we both say what's on our mind without any regards of the consequences or who it might hurt." Damon pointed out.

"I don't intentionally try to hurt people's feelings unlike you who seems to like pushing people's buttons to get a rise out of them." Noël stated as she did realize that Damon did have a point although she'd rather die then rather let him know that he was right in a manner of speaking.

"Whatever Gilbert, but you know I'm right about the two of us. So just spill, you never know I might even able to help you." Damon said.

"Yes." Noël said after a moment, normally she would have never admitted this but she wasn't the same person she was four months. Quiet and reserved Noël Gilbert was long and she was now outspoken and carefree these days. "Okay, I do blame her but only some of the times, I know that what happened was an accident but there are times when I'm having a really bad day and I miss my parents, I think that they'd still be here if it wasn't for Elena skipping out on family night. I know it sounds really bad…"

"You can't help how you feel."

A smile twitches at Noël's lips and she had to try her hardest not to laugh. "I guess not. But Elena is my sister and I love her nonetheless. I could have lost her in that accident too…"

"So when did this whole transformation begin?" Damon asked as he motioned to Noël.

"The day after the funeral… It's when I left for Europe and then that's when everything changed for me. I didn't have to be the Other Gilbert, Elena's twin sister or even Noël; I could be whoever I wanted to be. So I chose to be someone new and completely different to who I was here–" Noël began to explain.

"–And whose that?" Damon interrupted.

"Charlotte. Just Charlotte. I learnt to let go of my inhabitations and let the good times roll. I did a lot of things in my time away and I didn't tell my sister everything, I only informed her of the PG version of events. I partied and drunk a lot, I did anything to get away from my troubles and apparently it did me the world of good. I found out a lot about myself that I didn't know about…" Noël admitted in a rather cheerful manner.

"Yeah I can see that Noël or are you still going by the fun loving party girl Charlotte?" Damon quipped.

"I'm both." Noël replied.

"Care to explain Gilbert?"

"Certainly. Being Charlotte, allowed me to be free and gain confidence that I never had before. I've learnt to enjoy life and have fun but partying and drinking all day everyday just isn't me, I'm Noël; a girl genius who likes history, studying and reading and likes to keep herself isolated. So I figured I'd be both. Charlotte + Noël = Charlotte Noël Gilbert, the smart girl who likes to have a good time, best of both worlds. So here I am, back in town with a whole new outlook and way of life…" Noël said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"I think I'm going to enjoy getting to know you Gilbert especially since I know that you're the good girl gone bad and it makes me wonder what you really got up to in Europe now…" Damon stated and Noël couldn't help but laugh.

"Pity I can't say the same thing about you but if you'll excuse me I have some cheering to do. "Noël said beginning to talk away but then she stopped and whispered something in his ear. "And by the way Salvatore, I'll never and I mean I will never tell you the truth about what I did in Europe. It's better left to your imagination…"

Damon looked at Noël with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I'll make you tell me Gilbert, one way or the other."

"Bring it on."


	8. Chapter 8

Over the next two weeks Noël kept herself pretty busy between studying for school and cheerleading, if she wasn't in her bedroom then she was out of the house either at school or hanging out with Matt. Even more so after Mr. Tanner had been killed by some wild animal the night of the pep rally. Noël was purposely staying away from Elena, Bonnie and Caroline so she could avoid seeing both Damon and Stefan.

"Noël? What are you doing in there?"

Crawling out of the wardrobe Noël saw her Aunt Jenna looking at her in a bemused manner and grinning back at her Noël stood up and dusting her knees quickly as she held up a pair of very nice heels. "Just stealing a pair of shoes for tonight from my fabulous Aunt who happens to be the same shoe size as me. You don't mind do you? I don't have any shoes that go with my dress and I'd rather not borrow a pair from Elena and I can always count on you to have something cool."

"Moving on from cool relatives to the not so cool relatives, have you spoken to your Uncle John since you came home?" Jenna asked and Noël took a sharp intake of breath, her dad's younger brother was the last person that Noël expected Jenna to bring up as she absolutely detested him for reasons unknown and whenever Noël would ask, neither of them would tell her anything. All Noël knew was that Aunt Jenna hated him and Elena, Jeremy and Noël weren't exactly too fond of the guy. Or rather Noël used to be not so fond of him until a about just under a month ago. As her Uncle John had been there for Noël when she really needed him so she was on rather good terms with him.

"I sent him a text to let him know I got back here okay and that's it really, he knows that if I need anything that I'll get in contact with him. Why? Do I need to get in contact with him or something?" Noël questioned as she moved over to go through Jenna's jewelry collection, something must be going on if Jenna was willingly bringing him up in a conversation and wanting to talk about him

"No he called last night wanting to see how things were and you came up in conversation, he's worried about you Charlotte as am I." Jenna began and Noël just sighed, it was very rare that Jenna called Noël by her first name and when she did it meant that she wasn't being the fun aunt but the serious one. "You gonna to tell Elena and Jeremy the truth about where you the last three weeks before you came home?"

Noël shook her head, there was no way she could tell her brother and sister that she wasn't in Berlin or Prague where she should have been and instead she was hiding out about two hours away from Mystic Falls with their Uncle John. If they knew the truth about the thing that happened that led Noël to come home earlier and that she had been lying to them; Noël didn't know whether they could handle it. "Jeremy has his own issues to deal with at the moment I'd rather not dump mine on him and with Elena I know she'll be supportive but she'll also be mad with for not telling her and then she'll yell at me for being so irresponsible and I've already had enough of her being judgmental and pissed off with me because I left. I don't need her to tell me that I messed because I already know that."

"Well you know I'm here if you ever want to talk about it." Jenna said as she put a reassuring hand on Noël's shoulder. That's what Noël liked most about Jenna, she didn't force things with her as she understood that there were something that Noël liked keeping to herself and didn't like sharing. Aunt Jenna was the person who understood her the most, as different as they were or used to be until Noël's little trip she had always understood her.

"I know you are but I'm fine Jenna, honestly. I just want to forget it ever happened and move on with my life and that's what I'm trying to do." Noël stated knowing that Jenna would never break her confidence and even if she did it would be because she really had to.

"Are you sure?" Jenna wearily asked.

Noël nodded slowly. "Yeah I am and thank you for not yelling at me when I got home because of what happened in Europe and that I called Uncle John instead of you, I just thought the Uncle who doesn't spend much time in town would be less likely to yell at me…"

"I would have yelled if I hadn't have been so worried about you but it's not important anymore, what is important is that your healthy and back home again." Jenna tells me.

"Wow… Check you out, your really starting to sound like an adult Jenna and Mr. Tanner said you couldn't raise three teenagers." Noël began and the two of them froze as it was kind of bad to talk ill of the dead even if it was an ass like Mr. Tanner who Noël liked showing up in class. But none the less the guy was dead, he was killed by a mountain lion in the school car park the night of the big football pep rally, which was kind of shocking given that a mountain lion was there of all places. But then again life was full of great mysteries such as who ate Noël's last chocolate pudding? Jeremy, Noël suspected but her point was about how there were some things you just can't explain.

"You okay Noël? You never really did say much about this whole Mr. Tanner thing?" Jenna questioned.

"I'm fine Aunt Jenna, it was just so unexpected." Noël admitted because as much as a pain in the ass Mr. Tanner was, the last thing she expected was for him to be killed and by a mountain lion nonetheless.

"You sure? With what happened to your mom and dad, now this… It's okay for old feelings to be resurfacing Noël."

"I've told you already Aunt Jenna I am fine, there's nothing for you or anyone else to be worried about. I'm back home and with the people I love so that makes me extremely happy and nothing is going to change that anytime soon so stop worrying! I thought we were going to have a girls night out on the Lockwood's expense!" Noël said referring to the heritage party being thrown tonight to celebrate the town's history and their families by the founders council which was being held at the Lockwood's and naturally they were footing the bill. And since Jenna and Noël were both single, the two of them along with Bonnie were all going together as both Caroline and Elena were being bores as they were going with dates. But it was their loss as the three of them were going to have fun as it was impossible not to have a good time when you were with Jenna.

"Well look whose getting all excited to go to a party!" Jenna teased as she knew that Noël didn't used to be ones for parties and she used to have to be forcefully dragged along to them.

"Now come on, I want to show you what dress I'm wearing for the heritage party…"


	9. Chapter 9

"Remind me again why we decided to come to this party in the first place?" Noël wearily asked as she walked around the Lockwood mansion with Bonnie looking at the various displays that had been put on a show, it wasn't much of a party as it was pretty boring to put it lightly. Not to mention that Jenna had run into her ex Logan Fell and she wasn't particularly happy to see him, with good reason as he cheated on her with some woman who called Monica. So now she was off somewhere no doubt having a large glass of wine. Good old Aunt Jenna, at times predictable but Noël loved the woman.

"Your mom." Bonnie reminded Noël which caused her to take a sharp intake of breath.

"Of course." Noël replied as her eyes drifted around to look at some family heirloom that was donated by the Forbes family, her mom loved all this founding family stuff especially events like these and as much Noël was interested in history and knew the history of this town already, these events got slightly boring and repetitive with every passing year. Standing there with Bonnie caused Noël to recall Elena asking her earlier if she had seen their dad's pocket watch and Noël had lied and said no, despite knowing full well that Jeremy had it. Noël was kind of starting to feel guilty about lying because of how important this heritage stuff was to her mom, she knew she had lied because she was still kind of ticked off with Elena. But Noël also lied because the pocket watch technically belonged to Jeremy now as it was passed down through the family through the first both son. Their dad promised he'd give it to Jeremy someday but he never got the chance so Noël did. Just before she left to go to the Europe when everything was so fresh and raw she had the pocket watch and gave it to Jeremy when they were saying their goodbye as she knew their dad would want him to have it. And now Jeremy wasn't willing to part with it or lend it to the Lockwood's and Noël wasn't going to force him to lend the pocket watch if he really didn't want to. Although she suspected that this had something to do with Vicki Donovan who was dating Tyler yet took Jeremy's virginity over the summer. Noël didn't like thinking about that given that her brother was technically underage.

"You okay Noël?"

"I'm fine." Noël stated and Bonnie gave her a look that said she didn't quite believe her and to be honest Noël wasn't even sure she believed after the earlier conversation she had with Jenna. But she had to pretend like she did, everyone had to believe that she was fine and that there was nothing wrong with her. "Honestly I am fine Bonnie, just bored really…"

"I would be too if I spent the whole summer partying in Europe and then having to come home to this…" Bonnie joked.

There it was being mentioned again, Noël time in Europe. She honestly wanted to forget about it, actually Noël wanted to forget the last four months of her life entirely. She just wanted go home, get changed into my pajamas and hang out with Jeremy and perhaps watch a bad movie. "Yeah I suppose…"

"Look I'm going to get drink a drink, do you want one Noël? You kind of look like you do…" Bonnie questioned and Noël shook her head, she had promised Jenna she wouldn't drink and to be honest Noël don't even think she could stomach a drink right now not to mention she tended to get into trouble when she drunk.

"No I'm good, I'm just going to go take a look upstairs but I'll catch up with you in a bit…" Noël said and once Bonnie left, she let out a sigh before proceeding to make her way upstairs. Noël wondered aimlessly through rooms until she walked into a room where Elena was talking to Damon. However they stopped talking the moment they say her and moments Elena walked out the room without even a second glance at Noël.

"Looks like you're in Elena's royally pissed off book…" Noël quietly sais as she walk past Damon in order to take a look at the displays, not failing to note that he did pull of a suit rather well although she reminded myself that not only was he Caroline's boyfriend but he was a first class jackass.

"And how does one get out of it?"

Noël shrugged her shoulders. "Your talking to the wrong person buddy, I've been in that book for months and it doesn't look like I'm coming out for a good while yet."

"But your Elena's sister, you're her twin sister."

"So? Elena and I are just like any normal pair of sisters and besides your one to talk, you and Stefan are siblings and yet the two of you don't exactly get along…" Noël couldn't her but point out as she continued to walk around the room until one display caught her eyes. Her parents wedding rings. They weren't buried with them because they were family heirlooms and now the rings were on display for everyone to see. Noël didn't understand why.

"You miss them." Damon stated seemingly reading Noël mind and she just sighed.

"Depending on what day of the week it is." Noël stated and it causes the two of them to both fall silent and Noël pretend to focus on her parents wedding rings instead of the desire to leave this room and drink several glasses of champagne.

"You look beautiful tonight." Damon told Noël and she just scrunched up her nose and before shaking her head distastefully. "What's with the face? I just gave you a compliment about how great you look…"

"I don't take too kindly to them I'm afraid." Noël informed Damon.

"And why's that?"

"Years of self esteem issues, you'd be surprised to hear that Charlotte Gilbert isn't exactly the most confident person Mr. Salvatore. I'm far from it." Noël wearily joked as she awkwardly looked round the room wondering how she got into herself into these situations. Not to mention these odd conversations with Damon of all people. She barely knew the guy yet she felt comfortable enough with him to tell him how self conscious she was, that she ran away form home and how she blamed Elena for their parents death. But then again that could be the point. Damon was new in town, he hadn't know her for years so Noël didn't have to worry about him having these preconceived notions about her.

"You're coming with me." Damon stated as he took Noël's hand and led her downstairs and towards of the Lockwood mansion where a huge marquee had been set up with a bar and dance floor. And before Noël knew it, her free hand was on Damon's shoulder and his hand was on her waist and they were dancing with each other.

"What are we doing?" Noël asked and she didn't mean the obvious.

Damon smirked at Noël, which caused her to roll her eyes in response. "Well we're dancing and talking not to mention working on this problem you have with getting compliments."

"If it ain't broke then don't fix it." Noël couldn't help but quip.

"Well then let's break it in order to fix it." Damon instructed and Noël wasn't sure how this was going to end, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to know. "So if I told you that I thought you looked beautiful, you would say…"

"That you need your eyes testing and that I could recommend to you a very good optometrist." Noël said not being able to help herself in the slightest as the words came out of her mouth before she even knew what she was saying.

"Nice try Noël but your supposed to say thank you and sometimes you give a compliment especially if the person who gives it is as incredibly handsome as I am." Damon replied and Noël bite my lip in order stop herself from laughing at Damon's sheer arrogance.

"So let's try that again now, shall we? Why, you look absolutely gorgeous tonight in that your dress Miss Gilbert." Damon said.

"Thanks you…" Noël began and finding this all very difficult which was a new one for her. "You don't look so bad yourself, you seem to scrub up rather nicely Mr. Salvatore, you should wear suits more often."

"Not too bad although I see it's a work in progress but we'll get there eventually, just so you know I meant all the compliments especially the one about your dress."

Noël looked down briefly at her dress, it was basic terms it was a strapless black dress just with a sleeveless lace overlay attached to it with a ribbon waistband. When Noël saw it in the store she wasn't too sure about but Bonnie made her buy it because she said it would extenuate her collar bones and really make her blue eyes pop. Noël went along with it as she didn't speak dress and Bonnie seemed to know what she was talking about it and the black pumps Noël had swiped from Jenna seemed to go really well with it. "I'll pass the compliment along to Bonnie, she was the one who wanted me to buy this dress."

"But she's not wearing it, you are." Damon pointed out.

"I would have come in a def leopard t-shirt and shorts if I wasn't afraid that Carol Lockwood's head would explode. I don't exactly like doing the whole dressing up thing…"

"But you pull it off so well."

"So you say." Noël quietly replied.

"You know something Noël? Your quite a difficult person to figure out because you don't say a lot most of the time and then there is all the sarcasm but I finally figured something out, your lying about Europe." Damon stated and it caused Noël to stop in her step as she had no idea how on earth he had managed to figure that one out. Even her siblings and her friends hadn't figured that one out.

"No I'm not, I went to Europe and I have the tickets, passport stamps and photos to prove it." Noël said somewhat truthfully as she did go to Europe but just not for as long as everyone thought.

"Well then your lying to everyone about something in Europe, so what happened?" Damon questioned.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Noël said as she pull away from Damon and start walking away, she needed to get out of here and so she made my way towards the front door. But Noël realized that Jenna had drove them all here and given the Logan thing, Jenna was probably on her third glass of wine which meant that Noël was now designated driver and had to stay much to her dismay. Deciding to hide out in the dining room for a while, Noël started to make her way out of the marquee but someone and by that she meant Damon grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

"Yeah you do Noël, most people who have come back traveling would be bragging about it constantly but you don't even talk about it unless someone brings it up and even then you seem hesitant. Now this is only a guess but I'm pretty sure something happened while you're in Europe, I'm right aren't I?" Damon questioned and after a moment Noël forced herself to nod as her silence had already confirmed all of Damon's suspicions. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really… It's pretty bad and even if I tell you then you will most certainly look at me in a different way and judge me about it and the last thing I want is for you to judge me…" Noël honestly said, she couldn't tell Damon because it would change everything and she didn't want that. She kind of liked the way they interacted with each other and he looked at her in this rather challenging way. If he knew what had happened in Europe he would never look at her the same way again.

"It's not like I'm in a position to judge here Charlotte as I'm no angel myself and I've probably done things far worse than whatever it is that you did in Europe." Damon told Noël in a reassuring manner.

"I'm pretty sure you haven't."

"That's debatable…"

"Not in my books it isn't but anyway why are you hanging out with me? Caroline's your date, so please go with her." Noël said motioning for Damon to go hand out with someone who was much better company than here. As she had now turned into Negative Nancy or rather Negative Noël.

"This conversation isn't over Gilbert." Damon warned Noël wit a smirk before proceeding to walk away.

"–Hey, you okay Noël?"

Noël turned to look at Bonnie who had just rejoined her and she had this worried look on her face which was no doubt because of the lost and confused look that Noël had on her face. "I honestly don't know."


	10. Chapter 10

Noël wasn't much of a morning person, that was until she had her morning pop tart and grapefruit juice and that is how Aunt Jenna found her, happily munching on her chocolate pop tart as she went over my Spanish homework. Noël was always the first one up in the morning and the last one to go to sleep at night so it never surprised anyone to see her lurking around the house especially on a school days. "Morning Aunt Jenna, there's some coffee in the pot if you want some I made it five minutes ago."

"Hey Noël, you look nice today." Jenna told Noël as she went and poured herself a cup of coffee and Noël looked down at my outfit, which consisted of blue stripy sweater that she was wearing along with a pair of black jeans and combat boots. Noël found this to be an odd compliment a this was usually how she usually dressed but Noël remembered what Damon told me about the whole being gracious of compliments.

"Thanks, so do you Aunt Jenna." Noël politely reply truthfully as Aunt Jenna always looked nice which is why her eldest niece like raiding her closet so much because she has such great clothes.

"So, you going to finally tell me about it? Because I've gotten bored with waiting for you to bring it up." Jenna asked as she popped down beside Noël and grabbed her pop tart and takes a bite out of it and Noël didn't even blink at the fact that she was eating her food. Her aunt was the person who Noël was closest to in the entire world, forget Elena, Matt and Caroline it was Aunt Jenna who knew her best even perhaps better than Noël own mother sister as they has similar ways of thinking. Aunt Jenna was like Noël's other half to the other half she already had with Elena seeing that were twins.

"Tell you about what?" Noël asked.

"You and Damon Salvatore, I saw the two of you together at the heritage party and the two of you looked mighty cosy from where I saw standing." Jenna told Noël and she couldn't help but sigh. Noël had been hoping that her aunt was referring to the fact that Jeremy was upstairs hooking up with Vicki and had been doing so over the last three days.

"There's nothing going on between us, we just danced together that's all." Noël quickly said giving Jenna the quickest and shortest explanation but even before the words came out her mouth Noël knew that Jenna didn't exactly believe her.

"He's hot." Jenna said telling Noël something that she already knew, Noël wasn't blind or stupid. She was perfectly aware of how good-looking Damon Salvatore was, however Noël just chose not to comment on it firstly because if he ever found out that she thought he was attractive Damon would never let her forget it not to mention he liked like trouble and she was staying away from trouble. Especially if it looked anything like Damon. "Elena has Stefan, you should get together with Damon… if you asked him out I'm sure he'd jump at the chance."

"He's the older brother of my sister's boyfriend, I can't go out with him… that's kind of weird Aunt Jenna." Noël stated.

"No it's not, trust me…" Jenna said and does nothing further to expand on it which was weird as Jenna loved telling Noël all the explicit details of her dating history and as much as Noël wanted to know what she meant by that she didn't push. Jenna never pushes her, so Noël didn't push her.

"I still think it's weird."

"Noël it's not weird and it's not like I'm telling you to marry the guy, just ask him out. When I saw the two of you t the heritage party it seemed like the two of you were really hitting it off, pretty sure I saw a spark between you two." Jenna stated.

"That might have been the several large glasses of wine you had that night but, as much as I hate to admit this we have a lot in common and he understand me although not as much as you do Aunt Jenna. He doesn't see me as the other Gilbert, he see's me as Noël or Charlotte depending on whether he's trying to annoy me or not. But guys like Damon Salvatore are only good for one thing Aunt Jenna–" Noël began.

"–Getting into bed with." Jenna stated, which caused Noël to go red in the face as that was the last thing she was expecting her to say given everything but it just causes Jenna to laugh.

"Probably but what I was going to say was breaking girls hearts, I bet he's left a trail of broken hearts in his time not to mention he's Caroline's boyfriend and that means he's off limits plus the guy is trouble it's just better for everyone this way." Noël wearily said to deter Jenna because she couldn't exactly tell her the entire truth by what she meant by saying that Damon was trouble. The night of the heritage party, something happened but she didn't exactly know what. All she knew was that Caroline had all these bite marks on her body and apparently Damon responsible for. Noël didn't know what exactly it was, some sex game wrong but it was weird. A clear sign for me not to get involved. "Plus he's an ass."

"But you're attracted to him." Jenna said and Noël wasn't sure where that came from but she wasn't going to pretend that even a tiny bit of that wasn't true.

"That's not important and speaking of local ass' what about Logan? I thought you were going to give him hell not agree to go out to dinner with him?" Noël questioned, deterring the attention off her and on to her aunt.

"It's all part of the plan Noël, let him take me out for dinner and rack an enormous bill and mock him through out the night before walking out and leaving him to pay."

"Ah I see, okay then." Noël said with a small nod, she'd keep an eye on her aunt and make sure this plan of hers didn't back fire as the last thing Noël wanted was for aunt's heart to broken again by the local newsreader.

"You spoken to Elena about this whole Stefan thing?"

Noël shook her head, the new boyfriend had pulled a Houdini act during heritage party and left Elena some weird voicemail and Elena hadn't seen or heard from Stefan since. "Nope. I warned her about the guy and she refused to listen, thinking that she knew everything so I decided to not get involve. It's her problem not mine."

"The two of you really need to sit down and talk about everything, I've never seen the two of like this; arguing so much and just plain avoiding each other. Before the accident the two of you were much closer and now your not. The two of you are twins but you couldn't be further apart of you tried…" Jenna stated and Noël just shrugged her shoulders. She knew she should care but she honestly couldn't care less at the moment.


	11. Chapter 11

_"If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days…"_ Noël read to herself as she sat alone in her room, she had finished all my homework and had originally wanted to hang out with Jeremy but her brother was too busy now a days shaking up with Vicki to spend time with her. Noël still found it odd that Jeremy was sleeping with her best friends big sister. It was weird that Matt and Noël stopped talking about it after five minutes because they just found it to be an odd concept. So since Jeremy didn't want to hang out with her Noël decided to turn her attention to reading, until someone decided to knock on her door. Reluctantly getting up Noël opened the door to find Elena there. "Hey…"

"Hi, can I come in?" Elena weakly began and Noël bit her lip to stop from herself from saying 'come right in, this is your room after all' and instead she just motioned for her to come in. Elena takes a couple of steps in and Noël shut the door before sitting myself back down on her bed. "I haven't been in here in ages.

Yeah you haven't been in here lately because I don't let you come in here, Noël darkly thought to herself, quickly realizing that Jenna was right, things were beyond awkward between Elena and herself. But Noël chose to ignore that as she looked around her room. Despite being majorly pissed about it at the start it was kind of growing on her, Noël had more space in here for her books as before hand her books had filled every shelf and were on piles on the floor. "So what's up?

"Can we talk Noël?"

"Sure."

"It's about Stefan and I know you're not exactly his biggest fan." Elena began and Noël just sighed as her my sister climbed onto her bed. She knew previously she had said to Jenna she wasn't going to get involved but it was hard not to when Jeremy sister came to talk to her directly about it.

"I don't know him Elena and that's probably my fault because it's kind of obvious that I'm a die hard Team Matt supporter not to mention that he popped up out of nowhere. From what I've seen and heard Stefan seems a bit cagey, I guess… vague and mysterious would be better words to use and whilst the broody mysterious guy is attractive I just don't want you go get hurt. We're trying to adjust as best we can after losing mom and dad, even after fours months is still an adjustment and I just don't want you to get hurt again. Because it'll hurt more than you'll ever know…" Noël said being very honestly with Elena although she didn't state that she was speaking from her own personal experience.

"I know and I see you were talking about the whole secrets thing, at first I was fine with it but Stefan keeps too many secrets and he never explains anything which just makes me want to know more." Elena said and Noël nodded in understanding, her sister was one of those people who once she started nosing around she wouldn't stop until she got what she wanted; hence Noël not mentioning the finer details of what happened in Europe.

"What happened?" Noël asked.

"You know about that weird voicemail he left me?" Elena questions and Noël just nodded. "Well at school Stefan came and found me and I asked what he was doing and all he said was he'd been dealing with Damon."

"It took him four days to deal with Damon? What the hell was he bloody doing that took four whole days? Geez…" Noël questioned in amazement, she thought Elena and her were on some weird patch at the moment but apparently it wasn't as bad as Stefan and Damon, which was slightly reassuring.

"I don't know but apparently Damon is gone now and he's not coming back according to Stefan."

"Damon's gone? As in packed up and left town for good?" Noël demanded unable to believe what she was hearing.

"Yeah… What else did you think that meant Noël?

"Oh right, yeah I get it now." Noël said rather slowly, as the news of Damon's departure was rather unexpected but it was also a good thing because if he wasn't here than she wouldn't get into trouble with him and that was a very good thing.

"Why do you care whether Damon is here or not? I thought you two didn't get on?" Elena questioned as she narrowed her eyes at Noël and she had to think quick, there was no way Noël could tell her that she was marginally attracted to the long vacated Salvatore spawn. But he was gone now so she could get over my silly little infatuation with him and go back to being normal and not play over in her head how on earth he knew she was lying about Europe.

"We don't but it would have been nice to get some answers from him about what exactly happened between him and Caroline seeing as she isn't exactly being forthcoming about it." Noël said covering my tracks with a very good answer, as Caroline had been acting odd since the heritage party, pretending that everything was fine and that the bites on her body were normal. Noël had read enough of Jenna's psychology books to know that Caroline was in a classical case of denial. "But let's get back to this Stefan thing, what happened next?"

"Stefan said that he'd meet me at the grill to explain everything and he showed up an hour late and even after he got here, he was being vague and not explaining anything just being even more cryptic than usual so I left. I don't think I can be with someone who keeps so many secrets…"

"Well Stefan is an idiot Elena, if he doesn't realize how much of a fool he's being and he'd be an even bigger idiot that I already believed him to be if he didn't try and fix this. You deserve better that some guy who is lying to you and being shady and if Stefan can't see that then you're honestly better off without him." Noël stated which caused her sister to smile and Noël know she sounded like a hypocrite given that she was lying to her about Europe. But Noël was her sister, so she was allowed to when she thought it was appropriate.

"This is nice…" Elena begins. "The two of us talking and having an actual conversation, we haven't done this in a long time."

"I know."

"I feel like we've grown so far apart these last few months Noël, I don't feel like we're the Gilbert twins anymore it's like we're two people who live two overlapping but separate lives under the same roof." Elena quietly said.

"That's because we have been Elena, after the accident everything changed and then I left and I know that you weren't happy about that and you thought that I should be here with you and Jeremy–" Noël began.

"Noël…"

"Elena let me finish, I know I should have stayed but I couldn't, I need you to understand that. I needed to get out of town for a while because I just couldn't breathe being here and dealing with what happened, then the whole circus began and I was suffocating and I just needed to get away. Be by myself, figure things out and get my head back together. I didn't mean to be away from so long but I needed to escape for a while…" Noël sincerely stated and she was surprised when Elena leaned over and hugged her.

"I'm sorry for everything." Elena whispered.

"Me too."

The two of them just sit there for a while until Elena finally got up and left citing that she needed some thinking to do which was probably a smart thing to do as she had to figure out this entire Stefan situation which allowed Noël to continue reading the bell jar. That was until she was interrupted forty minutes later by Jeremy walking into her room and plopping himself on Noël bed like it was something he did all the time, which it was. "Hey Noël!"

"Well if it isn't my little brother Jeremy, long time no see stranger, I was two days away from kicking down your door and dragging you back from the land of Vicki. I've missed you kiddo." Noël said ruffling my little brother's hair.

"So I saw Elena leaving your room, the two of you finally make up?"

"Something like that Jer, she wanted to mope about Stefan for a bit and then talk about it some more I think Elena's going to dump him." Noël replied as she put down her book.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Jeremy quipped.

"And what makes you so sure about that?" Noël retorted.

"Oh I don't know, maybe it's because Stefan is downstairs cooking dinner for the two of them and I know for a fact he's cooking her favourite–"

"Chicken Parmesan." Noël finished off and she watched as Jeremy can't help but smirk at this, meaning that he was some how involved with this and Noël had to admit that is kind of sweet and well over due because if Stefan wasn't going to give up an answers to Elena then Noël was pretty sure she'd have to get them myself.

"–You okay?"

"Um… yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Noël questioned.

"I don't know, lately you've had that weird look on your face, the one that always freaked mom out." Jeremy stated referring to a vacant look Noël got in her eyes whenever she had drifted out of a conversation or got too caught up in her own thoughts. It always terrified their mom for some reason and Noël never got the chance to ask her the reason why.

"I'm good Jer, it just seems like everyone shaking up around here first Elena with Stefan, you with Vicki which I'm still trying to process and even Jenna is out with Logan."

"Awww your lonely Noël, it's so cute." Jeremy teases.

"I'll have you know what I am far from lonely." Noël retorted.

"Yeah sitting in your bedroom reading Sylvia Platt tends to suggest otherwise." Jeremy sarcastically stated and Noël picked up a pillow and whacked him with it. Jeremy was such a little joker but he was her baby brother and she loved him enough to let him think that she lonely because of all these couple around her. But it was far the opposite, being around them all reminded Noël why it was a good thing that she couldn't and get involved with Damon as she was finally getting my life on track and she didn't need some guy messing it up, again…


	12. Chapter 12

It was funny how in a few days things could so drastically change, one day Elena and Stefan are back on track being all lovely the next Noël found her my sister leaning against the front door in a flood of tears. She was a complete and utter wreck and Noël hadn't seen her in such a state since when she woke up from the accident and was told that mom and dad hadn't survived. Noël did everything she could, dragged her upstairs and stayed by her side the entire time as she cried, even crashing with her as she didn't want Elena to be alone. But Noël couldn't get an answer from Elena about what happened, no matter how hard she tried Elena just wouldn't budge so Noël decided to get the answers from somewhere else. Elena didn't have to say it but Noël knew it involved Stefan. Sneaking out of the house Elena was on the phone with Bonnie, Noël drove to the Salvatore boarding house. She had never been there before but she knew where it was given that it was close to Wickery Bridge. Twenty minutes after she left her house Noël pulled up in the driveway and after parking her car, Noël climbed out and slowly walked up to the front door and knocked. As she waited for someone to answer Noël turned back to the drive way as she figured out how she was going to go about this.

"Elena?"

Recognizing Stefan's voice, Noël slowly turned around and shook her head at him, he was seriously going to regret getting involved with Elena when she was finished with him. "Wrong sister by a couple of inches, we need to talk Salvatore."

"Noël…" Stefan began.

"Now and it's not optional Stefan, I'm not going anywhere until we talk so the sooner you let me in the quicker and less painful this will be." Noël warned and taking a deep breath Stefan motioned for Noël to come in, to which she did. And Noël found myself walking into one of those stately homes you'd get in England. It seemed like more of a museum than anything else but it was somebody's house. Not waiting around for anything Noël instantly get started. "What did you do to my sister?"

"Excuse me Noël?"

"I asked you what did you do to my sister Stefan? Because the other day after the car wash she came home in a flood of tears and was inconsolable and I know for a fact that she was with you most of the day, so what happened?" Noël demanded.

"I didn't do anything." Stefan said.

"Really? Well I don't believe that because ever since you came into Elena's life, things have been different with her and I'll tell you something right now, my sister had never been all over the place about some guy and she's not normally one for crying but yet all that's happened since you moved her. I'm not stupid Stefan I have eyes and ears, I heard Elena talking with you before she came into the house last night so stop lying to me and tell me the truth." Noël retorted and she watched as Stefan's face fell when she mentioned the part about she knew he was with Elena before the floods of tears came.

"Why don't you ask her?" Stefan said after a moment.

"What part of my sister is upset don't you understand? I don't want to upset her even further so hence me coming here to ask you!" Noël said in a exasperated manner as she was getting nowhere as Stefan was deliberately avoiding answering her question.

"It's complicated Noël and you shouldn't get involved, it'll just make things worse." Stefan told Noël giving her the lamest answer that she had ever heard, even Elena had given her a better one than that and she wasn't exactly trying that hard.

"You really don't get it Stefan, whatever is going on does concern me because it involves Elena so it has everything to do with me especially when it causes my sister to cry. You wouldn't get this because you and Damon are over the place but I love my sister very much and there is nothing I wouldn't do for Elena because not only is she my sister but she is my twin sister. It is my job to protect her Stefan…" Noël angrily stated.

"I know you care about her, I care about her too."

"Not as much as I do, despite the two of us not getting along most recently she is still my other half and I would never do anything to hurt her intentionally…" Noël retorted as her voice continually got louder.

"It's not what your thinking Noël…" Stefan said before stopping mid sentence and Noël could see why Elena was getting so frustrated by his lack of answers, it was like getting blood out of rock with this guy.

"When I met you I was weary of you and Elena said that I should give you a chance and I really didn't want to but after the other day when you made her dinner I was willing to. But you just… I don't even know what you did to her but I know you hurt her and I don't like it when Elena is hurt because it makes me sad too. I don't know what it is maybe it's some twin thing but her being sad upsets me and my sister deserves to be happy after everything that she had gone through in the last few months and you do not make her happy Stefan –"

"–Well if it isn't Charlotte Gilbert, I thought I heard you saying my name and losing your temper…" Damon Salvatore said causally strolling in the room and Noël was actually floored by this because he wasn't supposed to be here.

"I thought you had left town!" Noël said to Damon before turning back to Stefan. "You said that Damon was gone… Is that what this entire thing is about? Him being back here after you said you got rid of him after what happened with Caroline?"

"Sadly no Gilbert, I'm not involved in the lovers spat." Damon quipped.

"Then what is it? What is so bad that it's upset my sister?" Noël demanded and neither of them chose to answer me. "Fine, if you want to be like that."

"Noël…"

"Stay away from her and I mean both of you, stay away from all of us. Don't call or text and don't even think about coming by the house just stay away and leave us alone. We're still trying to deal with a huge loss without the two of you coming in and making things about a million times worse…" Noël warned the two of them before turning on her heel and making her way out of the boarding house.

"Gilbert! Wait up!" Damon called after Noël but she kept walking until he caught up with her and blocked Noël's path.

"Get out of my way Salvatore, I just want to get out of here and I go back home where things are as normal as can be expected." Noël stated as she tried to get past Damon with no such luck. He seemed very determined to talk to her.

"C'mon talk to me, I've bet you missed me the last couple of days because I know that I missed you."

"You want to talk Salvatore? Then let's talk about what you did to Caroline, I saw her the night of the party, crying her eyes out with these bites on her body with no idea how they happened but she just kept repeating your name Damon." Noël began ignoring Damon's previous statement because it was completely irrelevant to anything so instead she hit Damon squarely in the chest several. "You hurt Caroline."

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

Damon shook his head. "Ask her yourself and she'll confirm that I did no such thing.

"I don't need to, you're hurt Caroline just like Stefan hurt Elena and I guess that's all I really need to know Damon." Noël retorted as was well aware of the fact that Caroline was still saying she doesn't remember a thing but it wasn't hard to put two and two together. So you and your bother stay away otherwise I'll go to the Sheriff and given that I'm best friends with her daughter she'll believe whatever I've got to say."

"You want to talk about the truth? That's rich when you're lying about your trip to Europe so if you want the truth from us how about you tell me the truth? See we both know that your lying about something in Europe, you practically confirmed it to me at the party… Now I think the reason why you're so upset about Caroline and Elena is because something happened to you in Europe and stop me at anytime Charlotte if I'm wrong…" Damon stated and Noël had to look away, she hated the fact that he was capable of reading her so well.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Noël lied but her voice started to crackle and gives her away and Noël had to swallow a large lump in my throat in order to not start crying and as she does Noël watched the expression on Damon's face change into an actual look of concern. And Noël realized that he had bluffing and making all that up as he went along until now.

"Noël… what happened to you in Europe?"

"Stay away from all of us, I won't tell you again…" Noël warned Damon as she pushed past him or rather he let her go and she climbed into her car and drove away as fast as she could. Until she no longer felt that was going to start crying.


	13. Chapter 13

Noël was avoiding Damon. Straight out avoiding him by any means possible for the last couple of weeks because he was getting even closer to the truth and she couldn't have that, he could not find out what really in Europe so Noël had taken to avoiding him. Which he had made even harder by some how managing to acquire my cell phone number. This whole thing with him was stressing Noël out, making her remember everything that she wanted to forget so she spent most of my time with Matt, given that Vicki was missing, she was prone do going off for a day or two as she was major flake but never this long, never long enough to really worry Matt. Not to mention Jeremy was all over the place about it and Elena was being just slightly over bearing with him, which meant Noël was mediating.

"This is going to be so lame…" Jeremy complained as they climbed out of the car, in an effort to get his mind off Vicki, Noël and Elena were taking him to the hunted house at school. This thing with her being missing was really tearing him up and he had been skipping school to help look with her.

"Look Jer, I know you don't want to be here but just hang out for a while to please Elena and get her off your case. One hour and then I will personally drive you home." Noël offered gently nudging her brother.

"Okay then." Jeremy begrudgingly said as they make our way into the haunted house and my brother scares the crap out of some little kids and Elena smacked him on the shoulder for it despite the fact that it was pretty funny. As they walked into the hunted house the first person that we ran into was Matt.

"…You went with last year's costume too, huh?" Matt questioned as he pointed to his and Elena's costumes, which were a doctor and nurses costume covered in blood with a severed hand and foot as they had done the whole couple's thing last year.

"Yeah. I didn't know that I was coming till an hour ago." Elena replied with a small laugh.

"Me neither, cool costume Noël." Matt said pointing to her ringmaster costume that she had put together and she had to admit it look pretty great as she had a real top hat and a red military style coat with the tails.

"Thank you." Noël happily quipped.

"And you're going as...you?" Matt joked with Jeremy who just stormed off further into the haunted house.

"Ignore him, Jeremy's been in a bad mood the last couple of days and now he's not talking to Elena at the moment as they got into a big fight before we left the house." Noël explain and Matt nods in understanding, given how volatile and all over the place Vicki could be at times he really understood sibling squabbles.

"Yeah, I got into it with Vic too, when she got home. I'm trying not to smother her tonight, but part of me didn't wanna let her out of my sight."

"Wait? Vicki's back? That's great Matt!" Noël said with a bright smile as she knew w how much he's been worried about her and with Vicki being back it meant that the police search could be called off and both Matt and Jeremy would stop worrying incessantly.

"Yeah, you can't miss her. She's a vampire."

"Where did Jeremy go?" Elena demanded suddenly freaking out for no apparent reason, looking around to see if she could spot Jeremy but he had kind of taken off not that Noël could really blame him given how Elena had been really over doing it with lately especially with this Vicki thing. The girl really need to calm down, Noël knew she might have to slip her a valium later.

"Elena what's the hell is the matter? Noël asked but her sister ignored her and mumbles something about finding Jeremy before taking off down the hall and Matt and Noël just looked each other, he may have it hard with Vicki but Noël thought she had it harder with Elena and Jeremy. So shrugging it of Noël went to go have some actual fun to which she found it with Tyler who had brought with his family's infamous cider which they had all gotten pretty drunk on last years, Bonnie so much so that he had the mother of all hangovers for two days which she tried in vain to hide from her dad much to all of their amusement. Noël had declined the cider but handing out with her friends was all she really needed to have a good time. That was until she ran into Damon, who was the last person Noël wanted to see given what happened the last time that they saw each other. She had spent two weeks dodging him and avoiding his calls only to run into him here of all places.

"Long time no see Gilbert, nice costume." Damon began and Noël chose to ignore that.

"What are you doing here Salvatore?" Noël asked as a Halloween party didn't really seem like Damon's scene given that he didn't even bother attempting to dress up.

"Had nothing better to do with my time and I could ask you the same thing given that you've been avoiding me the last few days."

"No I haven't."

Damon smirks as he takes a couple of steps towards Noël and she just took a baited breath. "Again with the lying thing, I would have thought you would have known by now that I've got you pegged Noël and I know when your lying and your doing it now. You've been avoiding me."

"So what if I have? I said I didn't want to see you ever again so I'll well within my right to avoid any possible encounters with you just like this once, so if you'll excuse I'll be on my way." Noël said walking past Damon as to find better company.

"What happened to you?" Damon called out and Noël couldn't help but stop where she was and take a deep breath. She didn't like him asking her about it because the more he asked the closer she was getting to actually telling him. Noël stood where she was and Damon made his way back over to her. "What happened to you in Europe Charlotte?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"Because it's bad Damon, what part of that don't you understand? There is a reason I don't talk about my time away and it will change everything so stop asking me about it and a better question why do you care so much about it?" Noël asked and Damon looks at her for the longest times before he finally decided to respond to the question.

"I don't know why but I do."

"Don't. It's better off for everyone if you don't care, just forget everything and you'll make both our lives easier." Noël firmly told him before running off back into the hunted house, she need to get this out of my system and she needed to do it now and Noël I roamed the hallways she ran into Elena and grabbed her arm, Noël didn't care that we where we were she just need to tell her. "Elena I need to talk to you!"

"Noël, I can't I need to find Jeremy!" Elena yelled back as she pulled away and kept running down the hallway and reluctantly Noël followed her, Jeremy was more than capable of taking care of himself for a few minutes whilst the two of them talked. Noël had listened to her wail about Stefan so the least her sister could do with spare me a few minutes so they could talk. Noël followed Elena out of a back door and at first she didn't realize what was going on until she saw that Vicki was making out with Jeremy.

"Vicki, no!" Elena yelled and Noël watched in confusion as her sister picked up a wooden plank for god knows what reason and tried to hit Vicki but Vicki grabbed Elena and threw her a good couple of meters away into a pile of nearby garbage. If Noël wasn't seeing this with her own eyes she wouldn't have believed and as she ran over to Elena to help her up, Stefan appeared out of nowhere and held Vicki up against the bus.

"Vicki!" Jeremy yelled rushing over to Vicki for god knows what reason and all Noël could do was watch as Vicki pushed Stefan to the floor and disappeared with such speed that it could not be humanly possible, it couldn't be but Noël was seeing it with her own two eyes. Noël told myself that it was the stupid cider that Tyler had given her, he must have put something else in there as it was the only way to explain that she was seeing. But then Noël remembered that she didn't actually have the cider, she turned it down because she wasn't doing the whole drinking thing because of Jenna's request a few weeks again,

Go. get inside. Go!" Stefan yelled and Elena grabbed Noël's hand before dragging her along with Jeremy towards the door that they had come out of minutes ago. They had barely made it to the door when Noël felt herself being lifted off her feet and before Noël knew it, she was laying on the ground with a sharp pain against her head. Looking up Noël saw Jeremy on the ground too, not far from her but Vicki had Elena and Noël could have sworn it looked like Vicki was biting her. Until she saw piece of wood pop out of Vicki's chest and Noël wanted to scream but no words came out. She could watch as Vicki whimpered in pain as Stefan pulled the piece of wood out,

"Vicki! Vicki! Vicki! Vicki!" Jeremy yelled as he made his way towards her but Stefan stopped him. Noël watched as Vicki began to stumble and the veins in her body became apparent as she lost colour in her face until she dropped to the ground.

"Vicki…" Noël quietly said as she crawl over to her body, this couldn't be happening. Vicki couldn't be dead she just couldn't be happening. Matt's sister could not be dead, Noël kept telling herself that she had just not seen Stefan kill Vicki but she couldn't deny what was in front of her eyes; Vicki's corpse.

"Get them both out of here." Elena said but Noël was barely listening as he mind had gone completely blank, she had just gone numb all over and she didn't even remember the car rise home or even getting up. Things only started getting clearer once Noël had gotten changed out of her costume and into a sweatshirt and her plaid pyjama bottoms, she needed to get some fresh air so she could get her head together so Noël slid on her sneakers and walked down the stairs and out of the house.

"Noël…"

Coming out of her own little world Noël saw it was Stefan standing on the porch and she tried to open her mouth in order to ask a question but there was so many that she didn't know where to begin. She had just seen him kill her best friend's big sister and for some reason nothing had happened, no one had called the police or anything. "I-I don't understand, w-what happened? What was wrong with Vicki?"

"Do you really want to know?" Stefan wearily asked.

"I just saw you kill my best friends big sister, so yes I really want to know! "Noël snapped as she ran her hands through her hair, everything was so confusing as her whole world had just been completely shaken up and was all over the place and she didn't know what to do or how to react. Noël just wanted to take up from this nightmare.

"I'm a vampire Noël, so is Damon and Vicki was too." Stefan said and for a moment Noël just looked at him in disbelief and she shook my head repeatedly, as that couldn't be true it just couldn't. It wasn't possible by then it made sense I guess, how Vicki disappeared so quickly and why she was biting Elena. Noël legs started to feel weak so Stefan guided her to the bench that was on the porch and as Noël sat down Stefan walked through he through it all, he explained everything to her actually more than she wanted to know. But she needed to hear it so she could understand how this happened and why this happened. Once he had finished Noël just sat there as she needed a bit of time to process it all. Vampires were something that Noël believed to made up creature but not anymore.

"Noël…" Elena quietly said and as soon as Noël heard her sister's voice, she got up and walked over to her sister and hugged her. Noël so desperately wanted to start crying because of what she had seen and how unreal it seemed. Vicki was dead and vampires actually existed in town that Noël used to believe was the most boring town in Virginia but clearly it wasn't anymore. "You okay?"

Noël nodded feebly at her sister because that was the best she could do, Noël didn't think she could put into words how she actually felt. "You?

"Yeah I'm okay." Elena said as her and Noël let go off each other and Elena turned her attention over to Stefan and Noël realized that this had been the big secret that he had been keeping. "Are you okay?

"I, uh...I wanted to help her. But instead, uh...How's he doing'? Stefan questions referring to Jeremy who is without a doubt inconsolable and Noël had no idea what they we're going to do and how she was supposed to help him with any of this.

"He's a mess. I don't want him going through this again. He's just a kid." Elena said which is literally the same thing that is going through Noël's mind again, Jeremy was barely dealing with losing their parents and losing Vicki was going to send him even further the edge then he already was. Her little brother had turned to drugs to cope and god knows what he turn to now to help himself now.

"Elena, what can I do? I...What can I do to help? I'll do anything." Stefan questioned.

"Can you make him forget?" Elena asked and Noël was taken aback.

"Elena..." Noël wearily began because what she is asking is ridiculous, she was making a stupid request as there was now way that Stefan could make Jeremy forget about anything that happened tonight.

"Noël, I'll explain it all later but he can do it. Stefan can make Jeremy forget that this all ever happened and he needs to. I don't know how Jeremy will ever get past this and I just want him to forget everything that happened. He needs the piece of mind." Elena says to Noël but she knew the latter half is directed towards Stefan.

Stefan sighed. "If I did it, there's no guarantee that it would work...Because of who I am. Because of how I live. I don't have the ability to do it right."

"W-what are you talking about Stefan?" Noël asked.

"Because he drinks animal blood, it makes him and his abilities much weaker than mine where as because I drink human blood I'm the stronger one out of the two of us." A voice said and Noël looked to see that Damon now on the porch appearing seemingly out of nowhere. "I can do it. If this is what you want...I'll do it."

"I-I don't know, this all too much for me." Noël weakly said.

"It's what I want." Elena firmly stated to Damon.

"What do you want him to know?"

"I want you to tell him that Vicki left town and she's not coming back. That he shouldn't look for her or worry about her. He's gonna miss her, but he knows it's for the best." Elena said to Damon before giving Noël a look that pleads for her to go along with it and with a sigh Noël made her way back into the house and led Damon upstairs to Jeremy's room. She didn't go inside as she didn't completely agree with this as making Jeremy forget about Vicki was something that she thought was really wrong. Less than thirty seconds later Damon came out of Jeremy's room and just looked at Noël.

"Are you going to make me forget?" Noël couldn't help but question.

"No."

Noël wearily nodded and she along with Damon headed back downstairs and on her way out the door Noël picked up her car keys and headed straight towards her car. She needed to get out of here for a while in order to get her head together and piece together all this new information.

"Noël?" Elena called out.

"I'll be back soon." Noël promise as she climbed into her car and as she put her key in the ignition the passenger side door open and in slide Damon of all people and Noël was just too exhausted mentally and physically do anything about it so she just started driving. The journey was completely silent for the most part and twenty minutes later they reach wickery bridge. Switched off the engine Noël climbed out of her and walked a few yards before stopping, fully aware that Damon was following her. "This is where my parents died, I don't know what precisely happened to cause my dad to lose control of the car but he did and the car went off the road and into the water and my parents drowned… So you're a vampire, huh?"

"Yeah." Damon said with a small smirk.

"Go figure, I guess that I should tell you my secret given that I know yours." Noël began as she took a deep breath and looked out at the water she couldn't look at Damon as she told him this. "You know that something happened when I was Europe…"

"I do."

"It's not what you think because most of what I told you is the truth, I skipped town and ran off to Europe because I couldn't deal with everything here, I partied and drunk a lot, in fact too much and there was this guy Eric who was doing the same tour thing as me. He was nineteen and we were sort of friends, we hung out and talked a lot… When we were in Florence I was having a very bad day, I really missed my parents so he took me out for a couple of drinks to try and cheer me up. We got drunk and I was still very much sad and one thing led to another, three weeks later I found out I was pregnant…" Noël said and the further she got along the more her voice started to shake, this was the first time she was telling anyone. The doctors had told Uncle John and he had told Jenna.

"Oh."

"Yeah, not one of my finest moments ever." Noël admitted as she felt hot tears stinging the corner of her eyes.

"Did you have an…" Damon began and Noël knew what he's asking, he wanted to know if she had an abortion.

"No. But give me your hand." Noël said looking at him for the first time and Damon wearily gave Noël his hand and she placed it under my shirt just under her belly button. "Do you feel that?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"It's a scar… A month later just before I was supposed to get to Prague I didn't feel well and I knew it wasn't good so Eric took me to the hospital. Turns out I was having what they called an ectopic pregnancy, it's when the egg doesn't develop in the uterus instead it was in a fallopian tube. It couldn't survive so I had to have minor surgery because it was dangerous for me and I was scared out of my mind but I knew I couldn't call home so I called my uncle. He flew out and once I was discharged from the hospital we flew back and I stayed with him until I came back here. Everyone thought I was in Lisbon and Prague but I wasn't…" Noël revealed as she removed Damon's hand from under her shirt, she didn't feel as if a weight has been lifted off her shoulders, it just felt heavier.

"Does Elena know?"

"No the only people who know are my uncle and Aunt Jenna, then there is Eric but no one else. I don't want anyone else to know. They can't know…"

"You should tell her." Damon said and Noël just shook her head.

"I can't… she already thinks of me as some kind of irresponsible person because I took off after our parents died, I tell her I got pregnant during the time I was away then she will be giving her holier than thou judgment for the rest of my life. I know I screwed up, I lost my virginity to some guy I barely knew and I got pregnant before I turned seventeen. It was stupid and reckless not to mention totally irresponsible. Sixteen and pregnant, just like that tv show… "

"You were alone and grieving for your parents, it wasn't your fault Noël."

"Yes it was my fault Damon, I was the one stupid enough to get pregnant I should have know better. I was supposed to be the good child, the one who gets the good grades and spends my time studying but now you know. Charlotte Gilbert is far from perfect, I'm a stupid little girl who should just stick to what I know best, my parents would have killed me for being that irresponsible…" Noël said with small sniffle as she clenched her fists together.

"How are you are now?" Damon quietly asked.

"Fine according to my doctors, they say everything is good again and I've over it…" Noël replied looking back out onto the water as she was trying her hardest not to cry but she knew that she was moments away from bursting out in tears. But that is the last thing she wanted to do because she didn't want to cry in front of Damon.

"That's not what I meant and you know it Charlotte, you've lost your parents and you lost a baby, you're not fine and you're not over it." Damon said as he made Noël turn and face him, she hated the fact that he somehow he knew he so well that he knew when she way lying. Just like now.

"I–I'm fine, I'm f-fine." Noël began as Damon took a step towards her and she jus pushed him away but that didn't stop him, he pulled Noël closer and she switched between pushing him and hitting his chest with her fits but them her resolve completely crumbled. And she gave in to Damon as her body was shaking completely as she start crying and everything comes crashing down. Noël wasn't fine and she had been denying it for a long time and she was mad because Damon knew that she wasn't fine and Noël was mad with herself because of how much everything hurt on the inside.

"It's okay Noël…" Damon whispers to her.

But it wasn't okay, it was far from that.


	14. Chapter 14

Morning came far too quickly for Noël as she sat on a couch in the living room of the Salvatore boarding house, after the mini mental breakdown she had Damon had brought her back here because it was clear that she couldn't go home in the state she was in. Noël's head was all over place with this watching Vicki die, finding out that her along with Damon and Stefan were vampires then her telling Damon my biggest and darkest secret which she had been keeping from practically everyone she loved. But yet Damon managed to figure out Noël was hiding something despite the fact they had only met under two months ago and he had been an odd source of comfort, He didn't judge Noël and that was the biggest reason why she didn't tell anyone that she had been pregnant, having people look at her different and judge her terrified Noël into silence over what happened.

"Gilbert, I brought you some coffee figured that you may need it." Damon said as he came back over to the couch and handed Noël a nice hot mug of coffee, as weird and perhaps corny as this sounded she couldn't sleep so Damon stayed up with her and they spent the entire night talking about the whole pregnant thing and him being a vampire.

"Thank you." Noël replied with a small smile. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go right ahead Noël, it probably won't be anything that I haven't heard before so shoot." Damon told her

"Why are you being so nice to me? I was nothing but rude to you from the moment that we met and that really hasn't change over the last couple of weeks until the heritage party. Then you found out I was hiding something and for some reason you wanted to know and then I fall apart one night and told you. I was expecting you to be a jerk and make some horrible joke but you didn't and I want to know why?"

"I think that your interesting Noël, your one of these people whose personality is all over the place like your very family conscious but at the same time you don't just want to be see as 'The Other Gilbert' or Elena's older twin sister. I was told that you were the boring bookworm who didn't like going out but I met the girl who still wants to be the know it all but have a reasonable amount of fun. You're an enigma and I like that, not to mention I'm very fond of the fact that you're very sassy and always what's on your mind. It's rare these days." Damon admitted before pausing briefly. "In regards to the latter part of your question, you lost your parents and then went through another loss, perhaps even a greater loss while you were still grieving. I may be a jerk at times but even I'm not that insensitive as I understand loss."

"Katherine?" Noël questioned.

"Yes and my parents, my mother's death hurt more than my father's one as I was especially close to her whilst my father and I were rather estranged when I died and transitioned…" Damon noted.

"Does it get easier? The loss, I mean?"

Damon looks at Noël carefully before answering. "Some of it does, it helps if you have someone to talk to it about especially when you've gone through something like you have."

"I thought by not talking about it then it would hurt less and if it didn't hurt then I could pretend like it never happened and I could be normal or pretend to at least. But I guess I was wrong, it wasn't like I was thinking of baby names or whether it would be a boy or a girl as I hadn't even decided I was going to do but then the choice was taken away from me. The baby was going to die and I would have to, even now I don't what I would have done…" Noël admitted as she took a sip of her coffee.

"You really should talk to someone about this."

"I am. I'm talking to you about it." Noël couldn't help but point out.

"Not what I meant smartass and you know it." Damon corrected.

"I'm not ready to talk to Elena or anyone else about it, I just can't tell them about this because I am scared of how they will react. I can't talk to my uncle about it because even though he knows what happened, it's just talking to him about how I got pregnant after losing my virginity is just weird. I suppose I could talk to Jenna about it, she's been okay about the whole thing for the most part and she's always been the person who I could talk to about anything. She has wanted to talk about it but I just haven't been ready…" Noël said with a small from.

"Maybe you'll never be ready for it, perhaps you just have to talk about it and get it out of your system."

"Perhaps." Noël quietly replied choosing to take another sip of my coffee.

"Can I ask you something now?" Damon questioned and Noël just nodded her head for him to go on. "You know we've talked about a lot of things since last night but you never really went into detail about this Eric guy. If you don't feel talking about him it's fine, but…""

"It's fine Salvatore, like I told you the guy's name was Eric, well Eric Callahan and he's 19 and now a sophomore at Boston University, we keep in touch through weekly emails to keep each other updated on how we're doing. He's a good guy even before the whole pregnancy thing he was nice to me but I thought he'd take off the moment I told him I was pregnant. He actually stuck around, told me that he's support me in whatever I decided, he took me to the hospital when I realized something was wrong and he stayed with me even after I had surgery. I made him leave to avoid him running into my uncle but he kept in touch after he left, wanting to know how I was. He's coming down in a couple of weeks so we can talk as we haven't seen each other since I was in the hospital, maybe then I'll get closure, I don't know…" Noël said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Is that so?" Damon questioned.

"There's no hidden agenda to it Salvatore some people are just nice people, I know it's weird but it happens…" Noël replied.

"You sure he's not gay? Because this guy sounds too good to be true and I don't want you to get your hopes up about anything."

"I'm pretty sure he isn't given that he took my virginity and got me pregnant and why would I get my hopes up? I'm not looking to get pregnant again anytime soon nor am I interested in a boyfriend right now, kind of have to get my life together at the moment…"Noël began as she slowly stood up. "Speaking of sorting my life out I really should get home, need to check on Elena and Jeremy not to mention get come sleep and then take each day one step at the time."

"That is the worst mantra ever, the whole 'one day at a time' thing…" Damon pointed out as Noël handed him over her coffee mug.

"Probably. But it kind of does help when your life looks the way mine currently does but anyway Damon, thank you for all of this. I really appreciate it and I didn't realize how bad this was affecting me but enough about that, I just want to thank you for being there and not judging me over what happened, you don't know how much it meant to me…" Noël said as she gave Damon a small smile before pressing a kiss on his cheek and taking her leave, as she now had to go deal with the issues at home...


	15. Chapter 15

Laying in bed next to her sister hadn't exactly how Noël been planning on spending my day after she came back from the library but upon my arrival back home but Jenna told Noël that Elena had been wallowing around all day and suggested she talk to her. Noël found her sister laying in her bed and when she Elena asked if she wanted to talk she told me no so Noël joined her in bed instead, the two of them laying there in silence, not say anything at all. Not that Elena needed to say anything to Noël as they both knew that she was mopping over Stefan after they had broken up for good because of the whole vampire thing. There was plenty for Noël to say on the matter but she chose to be the supporting big sister instead so there they were until Bonnie walked into Elena's room. "Hey Bon!"

"Hey Noël, she up?" Bonnie questioned referring to Elena who had chose to hide her head under the covers as they we were both eleven years old again and didn't want to go to school.

"Yep."

"No." Elena said but Bonnie just made her way over and pulled the covers off Elena's head much to Noël amusement and her sister's dismay. "No, no!"

"Why haven't you called me back?" Bonnie questioned as she sat on the side of the bed whilst Elena and Noël both sat up in bed. If she couldn't get Elena out of her funk, then there was a good chance that Bonnie could because Noël really didn't want to spend the rest of her life hiding with her little sister from the world under the safety of the covers of her bed. Noël was a big girl now with her own big girl bed.

"To be fair she hasn't called anyone back, she's been too content with staying in here all day." Noël offhandedly say.

"Are you gonna stay in there forever?" Bonnie asked.

"Yep." Elena feebly replied.

"Move over." Bonnie says motioning to both Elena and Noël, so they both moved over and Bonnie climbs in and joined them both. All they needed was Caroline and this would be just like the sleepovers we used to have when all four of us would cram into one bed and miraculously manage to fit and sleep in. "I'm officially worried. What's going on?"

"I'm tired of thinking ... of talking I..." Elena quietly said and Bonnie just gave Noël a look as she knew that she wasn't going to get anything out of Elena anytime soon.

"Her and Stefan broke up and she's been wallowing in self pity all day and this is how I found her when I came home from the library over an hour ago." Noël explained and Elena just chooses to glare at Noël which she chose to ignore, Elena may not know it but Noël was doing her a favor here and she's be thanking her for this later.

"I'm so sorry. Are you ok?" Bonnie questioned with a concerned look on her face. "Right stupid question. I know I've been kind of MIA when you need me the most. I suck."

"You wanna make it up to me? Get my mind off of it." Elena stated and Noël could have sworn she saw a light bulb go off on the top of Bonnie's head.

"Just remember you asked for it." Bonnie said in a mysterious tone of voice before proceeding to get up out of the little bed den going about shutting all the window, after she did that Bonnie returned to the bed this time sitting on the opposite end and grabbed one of Elena's pillows, ripping it open and then emptying the feathers on to the bed. Noël wasn't sure what was going on.

"Hey!" Elena exclaimed.

Bonnie smiled. "Be patient but first I need to swear you both to secrecy."

"It's kind of a bad week for that kind of stuff." Elena darkly said no doubt referring to the whole Stefan and Damon being vampires thing and the whole Vicki being dead and buried somewhere thing and that was depressing, Noël would admit that but Elena was just letting it consume her, which was not healthy. She needed cheering up which is what Bonnie was trying to do and Noël was all in for whatever Bonnie wanted to try and rather excited to see what this thing she was swearing them to secrecy actually was.

"Swear, 'cause I'm not supposed to be showing you this." Bonnie demanded.

"I swear!" Noël quickly said before giving Elena a look to tell her to come on already.

"Ok, I swear too."

Bonnie nodded at the both of them. "There's no windows open, right?"

"Right." Noël said not exactly sure where this was leading but she was still optimistic about this being well worth the mystery and the one ruined goose feathered pillow. But she'd go along for now but if Bonnie was taking too long, she'd have to hurry her up a bit.

"There's no fan. No air conditioning." Bonnie slowly said.

Elena and Noël shared a puzzled look before looking back at Bonnie. "None. What are you doing?"

"Grams just showed me this. You're gonna love it. You ready?"

"Bonnie what's going on?" Elena questioned but she was soon stunned into silence along with Noël as Bonnie held her hand over a feather and moments later she lifted her hand up and the feather rose to. She wasn't touching it, the fear was floating seemingly of it's own accord and Elena and Noël just watched with shock and amazement.

"It's true. Everything my Grams told me. It's impossible and it's true. I'm a witch." Bonnie said in a gleeful manner.

"I believe you." Noël said ignoring the fact that her voice had gone up a couple of octaves, they all knew that Bonnie was a witch or rather they joked about it with Halloween costumes but apparently it was true. And it wasn't as hard to accept as it might have been last weeks, Noël believed in facts, science and evidence but then she also knew that vampires somehow existed and now apparently witches. Noël had to admit it was all very surreal to her.

"It's weird huh? After all this time joking about being psychic. I really am a witch. You don't think I'm a freak now, do you?" Bonnie questioned and Elena and Noël both shook their heads, Noël was in no position to think that Bonnie was a freak given how she felt about myself and was worried about everyone judging her about her past indiscretion.

"No of course not. Bonnie I just ...don't understand though. If your Grams asked you to keep all this a secret, why did you tell us?" Elena asked.

"The two of you are my friends. I can't keep secrets from you." Bonnie said and the guilt started sinking in pretty quickly over the whole vampire thing and then the whole losing virginity and getting pregnant thing. Here was Bonnie being honest and telling Noël and Elena her big secret and the two of them were keeping this huge secret from her and then she had my own. Noël felt really bad, until she was distracted by her phone vibrating on the side table.

"It's Caroline, she says that there's going to be a party at the grill later and all of our presences are required, she used the mad mandatory." Noël said as read the text message that out loud and sighed, she wasn't in the mood to go to a party especially at the grill as there was no way any of them would get served but Caroline had made it pretty clear that they all had to go and I slowly got out of bed.

"Where are you going?" Bonnie questioned.

"Ms. Forbes has insisted that I don't come in my usual attire and that I come in a dress so I'm going to have to go find one in my wardrobe or most likely root through Jenna's closet. So I'll see you both later." Noël said making her way out of Elena's room and back into her room and after turning her room upside for something that wasn't plaid shirt or a t-shirt with a funny slogan on it, Noël emerged from her room many hours later victorious. She had managed to find this navy tunic style dress which Noël had no recollection of ever buying but it was in her room. So Noël put it on but just because Caroline said she had to wear a dress doesn't mean she couldn't put my own stamp on it. Noël slipped on her white converses and a denim jacket with rolled up sleeves.

"Hey Elena! You ready?" Noël called out and Elena emerged from her room slowly with a doom and gloom on her face, she was in yet another bad mood and had been bitching to Noël all afternoon about some girl in a towel at the boarding house who was 'friends' with Stefan who she met when she went over there earlier on. As easy as it was for Noël to comment that Elena had a clear case of the green eyed monster, she decided not to spare the two of from getting into another argument.

"Let's get this over with…" Elena solemnly said and the two of them made their way downstairs and grabbing her keys from the hall table Noël opened the door to find Stefan standing there on the porch.

"Stefan…" Noël wearily begin looking at him for a moment before turning back to look at Elena.

"Hi Noël."

"I'm going to go and leave you two to it, so I'm going to go and I see you both later hopefully…" Noël said as thing were awkward and she hated awkward and there was no doubt about it that Stefan was here to talk to Elena so Noël decided to get out of house as quick as her legs would take her. So climbing into my car she drove straight to the grill and the moment she walked in Noël ran into another Salvatore.

"Well if it isn't my favourite Gilbert twin, you look beautiful tonight Noël." Damon told Noël and she couldn't help but smile to herself despite knowing that Damon was a vampire and had hurt lots of people. She couldn't help but be drawn to him and like him. Noël guessed it was because he was different like she was, he understood things that she could only ever talk to Jenna about.

"Thanks, what brings you here? A little old for high school parties?" Noël quipped

"Very funny but I see that you've gotten your spunk back, good for you. It's been missed."

"I suppose I have you to thank for that, you were right about talking to someone else about it other than you,I spoke to Jenna about everything a couple of nights back and it helped. I feel less–" Noël began.

"Guilt?" Damon offered and Noël shook her head, that wasn't the word that she was looking for.

"No there's still guilt and plenty of it but I'm accepting what happened, I'm not pretending that it never happened as it's too exhausting and holding me back. I have to accept and come to terms with what I went through if I want to get on with my life. Still not ready to tell Elena though, so I'm not completely fixed yet…"

"You will, you'll grown and evolve all that trees turn into diamonds stuff." Damon said offhandedly and Noël rolled her eyes in bemusement, whilst Damon may be over a hundred and sixty years old it was clear that he was no philosopher in the slightest. "Buy you a drink?"

"I'll have an orange juice and before you start complaining about how lame that is, I'll tell you now that I'm driving and I'll no doubt be driving some of the people here home and I'd rather not be pulled over for drunk driving. I'm kind of trying to regain my good girl image…" Noël explained and she was surprised that Damon didn't try and fight her on this like he did everything else.

"Fine an orange juice it is." Damon told Noël as he took her hand and twirled her around before walking off in the direction of the bar. Looking around Noël figured that she should go find Caroline and let her know that she was here so she wouldn't get yelled out tomorrow for being a no show. As Noël made her way through the crowd she felt an arm pull her back and Noël saw that it was a blonde girl who she didn't recognize.

"Elena?"

"No." Noël corrected.

"You must her twin sister Charlotte." Blonde girl said and things fell into place as this girl knew of Elena but didn't know of her and everyone who knew Elena knew of Noël which meant that Blondie must have only just met Elena. And as far as Noël knew, Elena had only met one new person lately and had spent most of the afternoon bitching about her.

"Noël actually and you must be the girl with the towel that I've been hearing about, right?" Noël questioned and the blonde girl just laughed and downed the shot that had been sitting in front of her previously untouched until now.

"Lexi, I'm a friend of Stefan's… So you and Damon, huh? I'll give you that he is very good looking but it's the personality that just ruins it for me that and he's just a general pain in the ass. No offense of course…" Lexi said and Noël wasn't exactly too sure what was going on here right at the moment so for now she'd just go with the flow for now but she was pretty sure that Lexi was a vampire but this was just what her gut was telling her, that or she was hungry again.

"Why would I take offense when there's nothing going on between me and Damon in the slightest?" Noël questioned.

"–Wait? The two of you aren't together?" Lexi demands.

"Not in the slightest, he's the older brother of my sister's boyfriend or ex boyfriend that's it, we're just friends." Noël said having no idea why she was talking to someone she just met about her relationship with Damon but then again it does seem to be a new habit Noël had been developing recently over the last few months with Eric and Damon.

"So your not attracted to him in the slightest?" Lexi questioned.

"Nope."

"Liar."

"Sure Damon is good looking, I'll acknowledge that because I'm not blind, ask every girl in here and they'll say the exact same thing. And that's as far as it goes, I'm sorry to disappoint you but that's as far as it goes." Noël calmly said, she found this entire thing of Lexi asking her about Damon and hers relationship to be very uncomfortable. Although she didn't exactly know why because there was no relationship of any kind at all. They were just two people whose paths crossed and knew each other's deep dark secrets.

"That is such a lie but whatever, be in denial for now but you'll realize it eventually and it's obvious that he is just as much attracted to you as you are to him, perhaps even more. I saw the two of you flirting together..." Lexi said and Noël just scoffed at the idea, Damon and her were friends of some sorts and that was about it. She was bookworm Noël who screwed up big time and he was Damon the vampire who was, well Damon. That was it but Lexi didn't seem to believe that. "C'mon Noël, are you seriously not telling me you haven't noticed the way that Damon looks at you? The moment you walked in here he saw you and made his way over to you before anyone else could, that kind of speaks volumes."

"Your deluded." Noël firmly tell Lexi with a shake of her.

"No I'm not, Stefan agrees with me completely on the matter and sooner or later you'll realize that I'm right. I'm always right about this thing…"

"Not this time." Noël retorted.

"And what's Lexi wrong about this time Noël?" Damon asked with smug smirk as he suddenly appeared right by Noël's side holding out her drink towards her and Noël had no idea what to say let alone do. Only that god needed to held her if Damon actually over heard all of that…


	16. Chapter 16

"Nothing much, just about you being an ass, I said that you were an ass but Noël over here thinks that you're a complete and utter ass and I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with her about that." Lexi said not skipping a beat and answering the question without hesitation much to Noël's amusement and relief. She kind of liked being friends and that was without people trying to complicate things by saying things like they were flirting with each. The furthest any of that went was Noël thinking that Damon was very good looking and that was how it was going to stay. Things were too complicated in both of their lives to go any further than that.

"Really? Well I kind of find that hard to believe Alexia as Noël and I happen to be _friends_." Damon retorted in a rather snotty manner that caused Lexi to glare at him and he just glared back at her.

"You a friend? That's a new one given that you're not exactly the friend type Damon…" Lexi spat and sensing some deep hostility on both of their part Noël quietly slipped away as she had her own problems to be dealing with and the issues of two vampires were not something that she wanted any part or involvement in as she was still trying to wrap my head around this vampire thing. It had been over a week since the whole Vicki/finding out Stefan and Damon were vampires thing and it was still taking some time to adjust to the whole thing and then Bonnie dropped the whole witch bomb thing. It was a whole lot to take in especially over a short amount of time.

"Noël! You made it!" Caroline loudly called out as she stumbled towards me.

"And you're drunk!" Noël quipped pointing out the obvious as Caroline was drunk and she was quite surprised to see that because there was no way that the bar staff were willingly serving her as everyone in town knew who Caroline was or rather who her mother was. If it were Noël behind the bar there was no way that I'd be serving the Sheriff's underage daughter.

"That I am!" Caroline chuckled before walking off as Noël turned around to watch her go off, she knew that she should go after her because she was bound to get herself into some kind of trouble and as her friend Noël was supposed to stop her from doing anything stupid. But she was distracted by the sight of Matt and so Noël decided to talk to him first and then rescue Caroline as she wasn't going to get too far in her state.

Making my way through the crowds I follow Matt's figure until there is more space for me to move and I run up to him and tap his shoulder. "Hey stranger!"

"Hey Noël! Haven't see you much the last couple of days…" Matt began and Noël smiled, she hadn't been intentionally avoiding Matt but given the whole Vicki thing and everyone thinking that she had skipped town instead of the reality that she was dead, it took a while for her to get the courage to face Matt given what she knew. Noël knew her best friend's sister was dead and she couldn't tell him. It made realize her how much more of a coward she was than she had originally thought.

"Umm, I've been around but I've been dealing with Elena as she's pretty upset with this whole Stefan break up thing and then I've fallen into my old ways of locking myself into my room and studying day and night…" Noël honestly said choosing to leave out the other things she had been getting up to in the last seven days as it would break Matt's heart if he knew. And that was the last thing she wanted to do as Matt was such a nice guy and after everything he had gone through with his dad leaving, mom always coming and going, then Vicki's constant drama and then the Elena thing he really needed a break. "I'm sorry I've been suck a flaky friend lately but how have you been?"

"Dealing. It's the only thing I really can do considering that I have no clue where Vick is, my mom is off somewhere with Pete." Matt wearily said.

"Things will get better." Noël optimistically said and it managed to raise a small on Matt's face.

"Perhaps. I'm going to go to the bathroom but we'll talk when I come back, right?" Matt questioned and Noël slowly nodded and moments later he was gone leaving Noël behind and standing around looking around the room aimlessly.

"So you and the quarterback huh? Interesting…" The voice of one Damon Salvatore said and ever so slightly Noël turned on her heels and faced Damon who has got his signatory smug smirk on his face.

"It's not what you think. Although it doesn't stop you from sounding just the tad bit jealous." Noël idly said and it causes Damon to scoff and roll his eyes in bemusement. "We're just friends Matt and I, well more than that. He's my best friend…"

"Your sister's ex boyfriend is your best friend? That's a bit weird considering that you are a twin." Damon asked slowly and it was clear that he found it weird and no doubt it sounded weird to people who didn't know the entire back story.

Noël frowned at Damon's suggestion. "We we're best friends long before him and Elena got together, it's complicated but what happened between Matt and Elena didn't affect us and lastly Elena and I are fraternal twins. We came from two separate eggs, we're no more alike than any other siblings except for the fact that we shared a womb and we're born fifteen minutes apart. So it wasn't weird because they are several clear and obvious differences between my sister and I."

"You don't have to tell me that, I see it Noël…" Damon said as he brushed a piece of piece of Noël's hair out of her face and his hand continued to linger by her cheek and it felt like Noël's world had got increasingly smaller as Damon and I looked at each other. It was odd and exciting but she felt scared, weak and vulnerable. Maybe Lexi was right, that she was attracted to Damon but Noël wasn't ready for this.

"I-I'm sorry, I can't…"


	17. Chapter 17

Walking out of the grill, Noël crossed the street to make my across the square in order to head back to my car after grabbing some greasy take out to eat at home whilst she study before doing some witchy stuff with Bonnie, Elena and Caroline. Unfortunately her plan to go home and study was derailed when she found Damon leaning against the side of my car clearly waiting for me. Noël hadn't see since the party of the grill and within good reason. Given that he had killed Lexi after framing her for all the animal attacks in town that he was actually responsible for. The whole thing disgusted Noël to the point where she resumed her previous activity of avoiding Damon as much as she could.

"Well if it isn't my good friend Noël... Where have you been friend? I tried calling you several times last night but you didn't pick up at all. Kind of hurt my feelings." Damon told Noël blocking her path so she couldn't get to the driver's side of her car.

"We can't do this." Noël blurted out much to her surprise as she didn't expect herself to just come out with it, she was expecting to do the idle chit chat before getting down to business but given recent events you never know what Noël was going to do.

"Do what?" Damon questioned although he knew exactly what Noël was talking about, he just wanted to be difficult about the matter and make her say it despite me really not wanting to. It was awkward and Noël hated awkward. But it had to be said because she had to put a stop things before they went any further.

"This." Noël said pointing from herself to Damon. "You and me, whatever this thing is going on between us cannot happen, it will not happen. I won't let it happen, so just go find something else to do with your time other than bothering me Salvatore because I'm not interested. I told you last night that this can't happen so accept it already and move on."

"Why?"

"You know why…" Noël replied with an exasperated sigh as she waited to get this over and done with quickly like ripping off a band aid but Damon was intentionally making things more slow and painful. Whether it was for his own enjoyment Noël wasn't too sure but that wasn't anything for her to worry about, hopefully after this conversation he'd be out of her life or at least a safe distance away.

"What I know is that I'm attracted to you and your attracted to me, nothing else matters..." Damon began as he slowly took a couple of steps towards Noël.

"Your not looking at the bigger picture Damon, your only looking at the finer details but I went through a huge loss and then went through another one. You were right Damon, I'm not fine. I'm in a bad place right now and unlike my sister, having a boyfriend won't help me move on, I need to be by myself and get my head together. I think that matters, it's kind of the most important thing here Damon and I thought you know that. I don't want a repeat of what I've already gone through..." Noël stated in a firm manner, neither confirming nor denying that she was attracted to Damon.

"I can't get you pregnant Charlotte, vampires can't produce mini vampires." Damon informed her.

"This isn't just about that Damon, it's also about the fact you've killed people in this town including your own uncle not to mention Logan Fell and you turned Vicki into a vampire because you were bored! Not to mention you were using Caroline as your own personal blood bank. I've been hurt and right now I'm not strong enough to be hurt again, I'm still trying to repair myself and I look at you and I worried that you'll break me and hurt me, just like you've done to everyone else around you." Noël explained.

"What's this really about Noël? Because you seemed kind of fine about all of this a couple of days ago and now your not." Damon questioned.

"I was never just fine with it Damon, I was just dealing with it but your right things have changed as I know what you did Damon; I know that you killed Lexi and framed her for all the animal attacks that have been happening in town when it's actually been you. I always knew that you were no angel, but this seriously? Do you have no limits or guilt for the things you do in the slightest?" Noël quietly hissed as not to draw attention onto the two of them as it was kind of important for people in town not to get wind of any of the supernatural goings on that went on in this town. But Noël had to confront Damon with the truth about last night, all the gory details that she found out from Elena when she came home from the party at the grill. How Damon told the Sheriff that Lexi was a vampire and after she had been poisoned with this herb vervain which was toxic to vampires and rounded up by the deputies, he staked her. It made me Noël sick as that wasn't the guy who stood with her on the bridge when she broke down and then sat and talked with me all night about the mess that was her life. The guy who was standing right in front of her was a monster.

"Why are you so upset about this? You knew Lexi for like ten minutes so you can't really be upset about a person you barely knew and trust me Lexi is nothing to really get upset about." Damon scoffed and Noël just rolled her eyes, she couldn't believe the nerve of him to be acting all high and mighty after what he had done.

"It's about the principal of the matter Damon, you killed your brother's best friend without even batting an eyelid and you don't seem guilty in the slightest about it. That's like Elena killing Matt and acting like nothing happened. You murdered someone who Stefan cared about in cold blood to cover your tracks and it means something, it's not something you think you can get away with... Was this even about covering your tracks or was this about Stefan? Are you punishing him about Katherine by killing his best friend? And on his birthday, seriously what kind of brother are you?" Noël angrily asked.

"Your one to talk Noël your pretty much as bad as me, with all the lying that you do to your family and friends about Europe and how you feel about me. The only difference is I'm more open about it than you..."

"We are nothing alike." Noël retorted. "And by the way I'm not lying to my family and friends about what happened in Europe to cover my tracks like you, I'm doing this to protect the people I love, something which you clearly know nothing about. But I dare you to prove me wrong, you do that and fix all of this then we'll talk about us. You want me? You have to earn me first Damon."


End file.
